Nostalgia: The Fife health board election which flopped

They claimed the democratically elected board would be able to work in the face of stinging criticism after a shockingly low turn out – only 14 per cent of Fifers cast their postal ballot in what was Scotland’s first ever health board elections.

The Scottish Government pilot project which was also run in Dumfries and Galloway at a total cost to the taxpayer of £2.5m was been slammed by the country’s leading medical body and a former NHS chairman as a “waste of money”.

The vote on June 10, 2010 was counted at Fife Institute in Glenrothes where 12 Fifers were elected to join the 13 existing appointed members on NHS Fife.

The most high profile candidate to be elected led the withering attacks.

Dave Stewart, who quit as Chairman of NHS Fife operations division in order to stand, labelled the exercise “a farce”.

He added: ”It has cost millions to elect people to a board that was perfectly fine before.

“The election itself was a complete farce, because there were no barriers to entry – that’s why you had 61 candidates.

“It’s not quantity that counts – it’s quality.”

Mr Stewart was also critical of the timing of the election which came straight on the back of the 2010 General Election.

He said: “Nominations closed on May 6 and the ballot papers went out four days later when all the publicity was on the General Election.

”I delivered about 4000 leaflets around Kirkcaldy and I met people who didn’t have a clue what was going on.

“For the price the turnout was disgraceful.”

He also feared the board would be less effective and more prone to tribalism.

He said: ”People think it’s a board of representation for individual groups. It’s not that kind of board.

“It’s not a council, it’s a board of governors.

“You are not there to represent any particular interested group, you’re there to represent all the people of Fife right across the board.”

Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland, was similarly critical.

He said: “This demonstrates that there is little appetite for these elections and the results are not representative of the majority of the local population.

”We still believe direct elections to health boards would not improve the transparency of decisions or the accountability of the actions of boards.”

Professor Jim McGoldrick, chairman of NHS Fife board, emphasised that the costs were shouldered by the Scottish Government, but admitted that the timing may have influenced the turnout.

He added: “The timetable, including the date of issue of ballot papers, was set out by legislation in 2009, long before the date of the UK election was known.

“The closeness of the General Election to the issue of the ballot papers for the other may well have influenced the level of returned voting papers.”

He added: “It would have been better if the rate of return had been higher.”