Kirkcaldy GPs with 90+ years service set to retire - major changes for patients

Almost 6000 people will be transferred from Nicol Street surgery to Path House Medical practice in the town. The changes take effect from July 31.

News of the closure broke earlier this week after NHS Fife lodged a planning application with Fife Council to increase space at Path House to accommodate the additional numbers. The moves caught many patients by surprise and sparked a lot of feedback on social media.

Both buildings will be retained, with plans still being developed on the ways in which Nicol Street Surgery will continue to be used to deliver patient care.

Lisa Cooper, head of primary and preventative care at Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “Plans are at an early stage, but they are happening at pace to ensure a seamless transition of services for patients and to minimise potential disruption.

She continued: ”We’d also like to give an assurance that all the necessary steps are being taken to ensure both sets of patients at Nicol Street Surgery and Path House Surgery have continued and uninterrupted access to local medical services, so they are able to see the right person, at the right time as plans progress.”

Ann Ferguson, practice manager at Nicol Street Surgery, said the three GPs there have worked in the local community for 34, 31, and 28 years respectively and have tried hard to find a sustainable plan for the future.

“The GPs, and my aim was to ensure an arrangement was reached that could offer the best outcome for the patients and all of our well trained staff,” she said.

“We feel this plan is a really positive way to provide primary care services for the local community in Kirkcaldy and are working closely with Path House Surgery as plans progress.”

According to planning documents, Path House Medical Centre currently serves approximately 11,058 patients in the local area. The addition of Nicol Street patients will take the total number to 17,323. Letters will sent out to patients in the coming weeks with further updates.

The expanded Path House Surgery will offer other enhanced services, thanks to a larger team. This will include additional, new doctors to create a fully staffed team of nine GPs, plus a an expanded team of Advance Nurse Practitioners (ANPs). There will also be treatment room nurses and specialist chronic disease nurses, primary care mental health worker support; a pharmacy team, a district nursing team and health visiting team.

Dr Alan Stewart, from Path House Surgery, said: “We have been working hard in the background to ensure a seamless transition for Nicol Street Surgery patients. As well as attracting new GPs to increase our staffing levels who will be starting ahead of the transition, we will be delighted to bring the excellent ANP and admin team from Nicol Street Surgery to Path House so there will be familiar faces from both practices to help to provide continuity of care.

”Our aim is to provide a new model of care with improved access to clinicians for our expanded patient community, this is a huge project, but our hope is from the end of July we will have the beginnings of a new service that fulfils the needs of the community and is sustainable for the future.

He continued: “This is a huge project, but our hope is that from the end of July we will have the beginnings of a new service that fulfils the needs of the community and is sustainable for the future.

"We look forward to continuing to provide our current patient community with the high level of services they expect, as well as welcoming our new patients from Nicol Street Surgery too.”