Funding Needed for Lochgelly and Kincardine Health Centres in Scottish Budget

I have called on the Scottish Government to honour its long-term commitment to funding new health centres in Lochgelly and Kincardine as the Cabinet Secretary for Finance announced new capital funding for NHS projects in the next budget.

Funding has been announced to replace Monklands Hospital in NHS Lanarkshire, the Belford Hospital in NHS Highland, and delivering a new Eye Pavilion elective centre in NHS Lothian but as yet no further projects have been announced to benefit from the new funding.

I have been calling on the Scottish Government to honour the promises made over the last decade to deliver replacements for the health centres deemed “older facilities that no longer meet the needs of the local populations” by NHS Fife, and I wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to highlight the need for funding.

In a previous meeting with me, the Health Secretary, Neil Gray MSP, recognised the ongoing need for replacement health centres in Lochgelly and Kincardine but pointed to ongoing financial difficulties as the reason for the delay.

Communities in Fife have been promised these new centres for years now and NHS Fife have been working with communities to plan these appropriately, so it is disappointing that the Scottish Government has still not delivered on its part of these projects.

The current health centres, which NHS Fife has stated no longer meet the needs of local populations due to their age and condition, create a significant barrier not only to the delivery of healthcare services in Fife but also in the ability to recruit and retain GPs in an area already experiencing issues with GP access.

Now that funding has been made available specifically for the delivery of NHS capital projects, this is an opportunity for the Scottish Government to finally deliver on the long overdue facilities for the communities of Lochgelly and Kincardine.

That is why I have written to the Health Secretary – given the repeated commitments to both facilities that have been given by MSPs and ministers, it is only right that these communities know when they will be allocated funding.