Councillors call for U-turn over ward closures at Fife hospital

Councillors across the political spectrum agreed at a meeting of the area committee that Scotland’s newest city needs more, and not fewer, services at Queen Margaret Hospital.

Councillor Aude Boubaker-Calder (Lib Dem) filed a motion to address the latest issue - the relocation of the haematology unit to Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital - and the committee agreed to write to NHS Fife asking for an explanation and reconsideration of the move, and the recent transfer of the local in-patient hospice ward which also went to Kirkcaldy earlier this year.

“It’s time to say enough is enough. We need to keep the services residents need and want in the area. Once again, NHS Fife is failing to listen to the views and needs of patients and local people,” Councillor Cara Hilton (Labour) said in support.

Claire Dobson, NHS Fife’s Director of Acute Services, explained that in March 2020, the haematology unit at the Victoria Hospital moved temporarily to Queen Margaret to help protect vulnerable chemotherapy patients at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was always intended that the service would return to the purpose-built haematology/oncology day unit at Victoria Hospital when it was safe to do so,” she said.

“The return of the service to the Victoria Hospital enables treatment times to be extended into the evenings due to the availability of an emergency medical response team and allows patients to access face-to-face support from the Maggie’s Centre, which is also based at the Victoria Hospital.”

NHS Fife also said Fife’s singular hospice facility temporarily moved to Queen Margaret Hospital in 2022 to enable an extensive refurbishment of Victoria Hospice. That work was completed in February, and the in-patient hospice moved back.

Lynne Garvey, head of community care services with the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said palliative care service in the region moved to a single inpatient hospice at the start of the pandemic, enabling a greater balance of at home care to be provided.

“This model remains in place and continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of patients,” she said.

However, Councillor Gordon Pryde (Labour) said: “In response to comments from NHS Fife about the need to evolve, I would like to highlight the feelings within the community. I would suggest as part of the evolving that the services at Queen Margaret be reopened,” he said.

He cited an online petition with nearly 2,000 signatures to back up his argument.

“People in the community have been crying for a fully fledged local hospital and I’m hearing the same cry today from councillors,” Cllr Boubaker Calder summarised. "This letter and the subsequent response shouldn’t be the end of the conversation. As councillors we should continue to seek the best for our constituents.”