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NHS Fife 'Divide and Conquer' Tactics Condemned SSP
Glenrothes Press Release 21st November 2001 In September, NHS Fife decided that the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline should lose its major trauma services, specialist in-patient care and surgery, coronary care and high dependency units to the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. The move has been described by many as downgrading the Queen Margaret to a cottage hospital. This decision was taken on the basis of maximising patient arrival times to hospital within the 30 minute limit set for the survey. An article published in The Courier on 13th October mentioned that 69% of fatal heart attack victims die before they have seen a doctor. By forcing the choice of general hospital, NHS Fife are asking the people of Fife to sanction a cut in health services that could endanger lives. The SSP call for NHS Fife to demand that the Scottish Executive make funding available to allow both hospitals to offer a full range of services and for them both to be brought up to the highest standards. Anything less than this diminishes the principles of free universal health care available for all. Similarly conditions and wages need to be improved for all NHS staff in order to redress the damage done to staff morale through Fife receiving the second lowest funding per capita. An SSP spokesperson commented, "It's bad enough that NHS Fife are happy to make do with the second-rate funding they receive from the government, but to make the people of Fife compete through public meetings in order to save their local hospital is obscene. It looks like 'divide and conquer' is the strategy being employed by NHS Fife. I would encourage Fifers to unite to save both hospitals." | Back to Health Issues | Home | |
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