Kirkcaldy GP surgery: expansion plans approved as one surgery set to close

NHS Fife has secured permission from Fife Council to add four additional consultation rooms Path House Medical Practice to cope with an influx of patients after the surgery in the town’s Nicol Street closes this summer.

The health authority was given the green light this week to reconfigure the reception and office area as well as an extension to the existing low level block to the north.

Path House Medical Centre currently serves approximately 11,058 patients in the local area. However, that number is set to increase by more than 6,000 patients in summer. Nicol Street Surgery will close on July 28 following the retiral of its three GPs who have a total of 93 years of combined service, and Path House will be taking on its patients which will take the total number to 17,323. As a result, additional General Practitioner spaces and Advance Nurse Practitioners are required to be employed.

Path House Medical Practice is an A-listed three story tower building dating back to 1692. Formerly listed as Dunnikier House, the name was changed to Path House after Fife Health Board restoration of 1979.

The building has seen multiple add-ons and extensions over the centuries. A circular tower and rear wing was added to the south elevation in the 19th century. When it was converted from nursing accommodation into the current medical practice in the 1990s, developers added a single storey extension to the north.

NHSFife has written to patients patients at both surgeries and created an online Q&A at https://www.nhsfife.org/pathhouse/