I have written to the CEO of NHS Fife regarding GP and local community health services, and to seek a meeting with her to discuss issues surrounding this. You can see the letter at the bottom of the page.
We already have five GP practices in Fife that have been taken over by NHS Fife because of a failure to recruit GPs. In these practices staff are doing their very best but local communities find it challenging to get an appointment and services remain precarious.
My office continues to receive representations from constituents from across Fife who are raising concerns about the ability to get an appointment to see a GP or access local health services. It is clear many practices are operating under immense pressure across Fife. We also have an older workforce within GPs and the likelihood of more retiring from the service and not being replaced must be a major concern to NHS managers.
It is crucial that NHS managers firstly understand the extent of the challenges we face with local health services moving forward and second, that they can demonstrate that have a plan in place to minimise the disruption to local health services and to recruit the qualified staff as well as a comprehensive training programme that will ensure local health services are able to meet the needs of local communities.
These are challenging times for out NHS in hospitals but also in local communities and is why we need absolute transparency so we can have the confidence that NHS bosses have matters under control. The alternative is more and more practices going to the wall with devastating consequences for people and a downward spiral of failings in all aspects of NHS care. This cannot be allowed to happen and is why we must be told the extent of the challenges and what is being done to address them.
CAROL-POTTER-17-NOV
