NHS Fife to close three admin buildings, including Hayfield House in Kirkcaldy to save £650,000

The doors to the buildings at Hayfield House in Kirkcaldy, adjacent to Victoria Hospital, will go,along with offices at Haig and Cameron Houses in a series of phased closures with staff hot desking or working from home - in common with many businesses, staff usage of the buildings has dropped since lockdown with working from home becoming the norm.

They were informed of the plan last week, and the closure programme gets underway at the end of the month. The buildings have traditionally been the base for a number of administrative departments.

The changes will have no impact on any day to operations within NHS Fife, and will also deliver savings of around 7% to the cash-strapped body - it is facing a £23m financial black hole and has warned it won’t be able to balance its books even after significant bail outs from the Scottish and UK Governments.

An NHS Fife spokesperson said: "Following the Scottish Government’s budget announcement, we have been working diligently to revise financial plans and create the necessary framework of re-form and transformation to deliver the required savings, which we currently anticipate being around 7% across the organisation.

"We conducted a comprehensive review of building occupancy rates and working patterns across our estate, and last week we informed staff based in Hayfield, Haig, and Cameron Houses that there would be a phased closure of these office-based sites starting from the end of March.

"This phased closure of administration buildings does not impact on clinical services and the anticipated savings of closing these buildings will be around £650,000 per year, realised through reduced utilities, maintenance costs, and business rates.

"Post-Covid we have seen daily occupancy rates drop at these sites with many teams and individuals adopting an agile-working approach. People impacted by the phased closures will continue to work agilely or utilise a network of dedicated hot-desking locations across our estate.”The health authority said staff who are unable to work from home would be supported to find individual solutions.