Public meeting set as residents ready to fight hospital service closure

Glenothes MSP Jenny Gilruth is among those calling for the Out-Of-Hours service to be reinstated. (Pic George McLuskie).

Five years ago the town won a 12 month fight to save the Out-Of-Hours service from being axed.

Now the battle has begun again following last week’s shock decision to close the overnight primary care service because of a staffing crisis and fears over patient safety.

The clarion call has gone out to townsfolk to unite and attend a public meeting to be held at Rothes Halls on Monday evening to form a campaign strategy to reverse, what many already believe, is the first move to remove the service from the area for good.

“Closure means 80,000 people now have to travel extra distances to Victortia hospital in Kirkcaldy, that is simply unacceptable for a town with a population of this size,” said Ian Robertson, chairman of Glenrothes Area Residents Federation, who have set up the public meeting.

“This is a rallying call for the town to fight this closure and we urge as many as possible to attend.”

The meeting, set to take place at Rothes Halls on Monday, April 23 from 7pm, comes after the town’s former MP Lindsay Roy, branded health bosses “cavalier” and “insensitive” over their decision to close the town’s Out-Of -Hours service, adding that it was “an insult to the 80,000 people it is there to serve”.

Meanwhile, Glenrothes and Mid Fife MSP Jenny Gilruth has already secured cross party backing from fellow MSPs from across the Kingdom backing her call for the service closure to be reversed.