Concerns after St Andrews care service relocated

St Davids Centre used to provide a care service for elderly people between Monday and Friday. However, this has now been moved to the Leng Resource Centre in Newport, prompting local politicians to voice their concerns.

Councillor Jane Ann Liston and MSP Willie Rennie have called on Fife Health & Social Care Partnership, which runs the service, to say when users can expect the service to return to St Andrews.

In a joint statement, the pair said: “For those who rely on this service, there is a worry that they will be losing out while the centre is moved to Newport.

“We are concerned that these staffing shortages are Scottish Government budget cuts starting to bite.

“The worry is that this ‘temporary’ measure just might become permanent, as appears to be the intention with the out-of-hours service.

“It’s all very well providing transport but that increases the length of time the service users are in a bus, which is not ideal.

“In addition, public transport from St Andrews to Newport is practically non-existent, potentially making things more difficult for staff members and carers.”

David Heaney, divisional general manager from Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said the intention was to return to St Andrews: “Due to a high number of unplanned absences within the management team at St Davids it has been necessary to make this temporary contingency arrangement.

“This is to ensure we have sufficient management capacity to oversee delivery of the service and ensure we provide sufficient support for service users.

“This is a temporary arrangement and it will be reviewed after three weeks as we are keen to return the service to St Davids as soon as possible. We continue to work closely with staff and service users to ensure the most appropriate transport arrangements are available.”