MSP's united in call to reverse closure of Glenrothes urgent care service

An urgent call to reverse the closure of the Out-Of-Hours service at Glenrothes hospital has been given cross-party support by the region's MSP's.
SNP, Labour, Concervative and green Party MSP's have put political differences aside to call for the reversal of the Out-Of-Closure closure at Glenrothes hopsital.SNP, Labour, Concervative and green Party MSP's have put political differences aside to call for the reversal of the Out-Of-Closure closure at Glenrothes hopsital.
SNP, Labour, Concervative and green Party MSP's have put political differences aside to call for the reversal of the Out-Of-Closure closure at Glenrothes hopsital.

Labour,Conservative and Green Party MSP’s have put aside their political differences to back Glenrothes SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth’s call to reinstate the town’s urgent care service, which along with services at Dunfermline and St Andrews, was forced to close suddenly last week because of staff shortages and fears over patient safety.

In A strongly worded letter to Michael Kellett, director of Fife Health and Social care Partnership, who took the drastic decision to close the three sites temporarily for three months, Ms Gilruth has called on him to reverse the decision.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And Ms Gilruth’s urgent request received a significant boost having been counter signed by Labour MSP’s Alex Rowley, and Claire Baker, Conservative Liz Smith, and Mark Ruskell from the Greens.

Former Glenrothes and Central Fife MP Lindsey Roy, who played a pivotal role alongside the then MSP Trica Marwich to save the service from closure in 2014, has also thrown his weight behind the bid to save the service in Glenrothes by adding his signature.

In the letter, Ms Gilruth outlined a number of serious concerns over the closure and claim’s the decision fails to meet the criteria set out by the Scottish Government’s 2020 Vision for health and social care.

“The Scottish Government’s route map to the 2020 vision states that specific work will be done to improve services at weekend, develop more person-centred health and social care services and crucially bring a refocusing of efforts to close health inequalities by targeting improvement resources into primary care in the most deprived areas of Scotland,” said Ms Gilruth.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The decision to close the service fails to meet this criteria and we have requested a full explanation.”

And she highlighted the deepening issue of poverty in parts of Glenrothes.

“Glenrothes is one of the poorest parts of Fife, with recent statistics showing nearly one in three children live in poverty.

“We are concerned that this decision will not tackle health inequalities but only risk exacerbating them.”