A Fife MSP is calling for a full independent review of the NHS amid rising concerns about its ability to meet local health needs.
Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley will ask Health Secretary Alex Neil if he has confidence in the “crisis-hit” service.
At the heart of his worries is a potentially flawed model NHS Fife used to centralise services at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital at the expense of Dunfermline’s Queen Margaret.
“I think they have completely underestimated the requirement of a health service in Fife with the model they came up with for the Vic,” he said.
Mr Rowley claimed the decision was made without room for any kind of delays or overlaps.
“That is why I believe it is operating virtually at crisis point,” he told The Courier. “If the model is wrong, then they need to acknowledge that, review that and make some decisions.”
Mr Rowley has told Mr Neil that one of his major concerns is the level of pressure staff are working under.
Other issues he is raising include the shortage of consultants, a discrepancy in the number of acute beds per head of population and a failure to meet psychological services targets.
While there seemed to be conflicting information about bed numbers, he wanted confirmation NHS Fife had among the lowest number of adult acute beds in Scotland at two per 1,000 people against the Scottish average of 3.1.
He understood that when the new Victoria was established there was a reduction of 200 beds based on it being designed to work with zero delays.
“However, the cost savings from those bed closures was not reinvested within community services which left the community sector unable to support the zero delay assumptions.
“This leads me to question the modelling that was carried out when the majority of acute services were centralised into one site at the Victoria.
“We need to know what assumptions were made and if the performance has reflected the modelling that took place. It is my view that since the new Victoria Hospital was opened it has bounced from crisis to crisis.”
Given a planned meeting with the chief executive was cancelled as he was on sick leave and that there is speculation the acute services’ director of nursing is no longer in post, he has also asked Mr Neil if he is confident Fife has the leadership and resources needed to steer NHS Fife thought the “many difficulties and challenges it is experiencing”.
In response NHS Fife said that currently there was an acting director of nursing in the acute services division. There is also an executive director of nursing.
Turning to the ongoing problem of trying to fill 40 vacant consultants posts, Mr Rowley said trying to “plug the gaps” with locums was a very expensive way to try to deliver services and was perhaps one reason why the acute budget was overspent by more than £8 million last year.
It also cast a big shadow over the future transfer of funding from acute to community where Fife was now seeing a major problem with lack of resources, he added.
“NHS Fife have also confirmed that they are failing to meet targets when it comes to psychological services and indeed have created a second waiting list to remove people from the first list which provides the benchmark for the targets.
“They do not know how many people are even on the second list I wonder how that can be.”
NHS Fife deputy chief executive Dr Brian Montgomery said: “It would be inappropriate to comment on the contents of correspondence sent directly between an MSP and the Cabinet Secretary.
“As with all of our elected representatives, we are happy to meet with Mr Rowley to discuss any matters he wishes to raise.”