A number of years ago, someone in their infinite wisdom decided to save money by moving acute services to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, which is all fine and well if you live east of Dunfermline.
If like I do, you live in one of the West Fife Villages like Cairneyhill, you have one of two choices to get to the Vic. The first is a 30 minute trip via the A92 (17.0 miles), right through the heart of Dunfermline. The second is also a 30 min trip (20.7 miles) via Rosyth, onto the M90 and on up to the very same A92.
The fact that we live 5.5 miles from the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline makes no difference, it is only equiped for outpatient services and minor injuries. It does not have an A&E equiped for severe emergencies, so off to the Vic you go.
Campaigners have fought hard to have A&E re-established in Dunfermline, especially considering the increased number of homes being built in the area. Dunfermline’s proximity to the likes of Edinburgh means that it’s only going to get bigger, and to be perfectly honest with you, the decision to relocate to Kirkcaldy, right in the centre of the town can only be described as daft. With traffic lights and peak-time traffic, speed humps and a lack of parking – going there is a saga.
By comparison, Queen Margaret is full of wide-open spaces and was ripe for expansion. Even a halfway measure of closing both hospitals, selling off their premium land and building a large scale hospital just off the M90 would have been far better than what we have now.
If you live in the West Fife Villages, you are doomed to a long transit time of 30 minutes, and one wonders why because there is a hospital that is closer with a fully equipped accident and emergency. The problem is, it’s not under the remit of NHS Fife. I talk of course, about Forth Valley.
In comparing transit time, Forth Valley from Cairneyhill is only 14.1 miles away via the A985 with very little traffic to get to it. The travel time is under 19 minutes.
11 Minutes makes a massive difference when a life is on the line. 11 Minutes can be the difference between a person being administered life-saving treatment, or arriving at the hospital with the blue lights off, indicating the person has already passed.
What I am calling for is nothing short of the return of A&E services in Dunfermline, in the interim, redistricting so that those in West Fife and the Coastal Villages will be transported to the closest equipped A&E department at Forth Valley, not the one that administrators lumped on the people of West Fife, transport times to which could likely cause someone to lose their life if it has not already happened.