Plans are “on track” for the opening of Fife’s first walk-in GP clinic by the end of August - with retired GPs set to help fill the rota to deal with patients.

It was announced earlier this month that the facility is to open in Buckhaven’s Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital as part of the Scottish Government’s national GP Walk-In pilot project.

NHS Fife and Fife Health and Social Care Partnership will launch the service at the end of August.

The clinic will initially be available to patients registered with a GP in Leven, Methil, Buckhaven and Kennoway. From September/October, it is hoped the service will be expanded to all Fife residents who are registered with a GP.

Randolph Wemyss Community Hospital will host the new GP walk-in clinic (Pic: Fife Free Press)

placeholder image — Randolph Wemyss Community Hospital will host the new GP walk-in clinic (Pic: Fife Free Press)

NHS Fife board members were given an update on the project at their meeting on Tuesday.

Lynne Garvey, director of the partnership, said the facility will provide access to primary care and reduce pressures on health services elsewhere.

“It is quite an exciting pathway for us in Fife designed to provide urgent care access for non-life threatening conditions,” she said. “The service model will be delivered at the Randolph Weymss Memorial Hospital. The opening hours have been agreed and we are on track to deliver this within the 100 day delivery from the Scottish Government.”

Ms Garvey said retired GPs and those who don’t work full sessions are set to help fill the rota with “more substantial” recruitment planned as the project gets underway.

The urgent care walk-in service will give eligible patients who have an urgent non-emergency health concern and cannot attend their usual GP practice access to same-day, face-to-face assessment and treatment without an appointment.

Dr Chris McKenna, NHS Fife medical director, said it was an “amazing piece of work” to get the pilot so close to implementation.

“The important thing about this is how we learn in the moment. It is not something we have done before,” he said. “We want his to be an excellent facility. We want this to be a model facility and we will make a real success of this.

“Randolph Weymss is a really fantastic set up. The infrastructure is there and it is a really excellent place to deliver what is going to be something really interesting.

“This is a service for someone who cannot not get a same day appointment with a GP and they can go there instead. Who knows what opportunities in the future this may have.

“We are ambitious and we see something for us in the future on how we approach unscheduled care.

“We need to start safely and in that contained space. There is something of an unknown and that evaluation, that constant evaluation is so we can understand what works and what doesn’t work.”

With the actual launch date expected to be at the end of August, the service will be open from 10:00am until 6:00pm Monday to Friday.