Doctors at a surgery thrown into chaos when a car crashed into its building expect to wait several months before they can return to their premises.
Pipeland Medical Practice saw 11 consultation rooms put out of action and its IT system wiped out when the car careered into its quarters at St Andrews Community Hospital.
After three days of emergency-only appointments doctors are seeing all patients as normal but GPs and staff are working from borrowed rooms unfit for purpose and a make-shift office in what was a meeting room.
When the car smashed into the hospital in the early hours of June 9, it burst into flames and struck two vaccine fridges which exploded.
The part of the hospital hit, which suffered extensive structural and smoke damage, was the suite of rooms and corridor housing the Pipeland surgery.
Dr Nick Haldane said: “Although we are trying to appear as normal as we can behind the scenes there’s a lot of disruption.
“Patients know what has happened because of what’s been in the media and for them the service is back to normal but in the background staff are running around, switching space and taking over a seat that someone has left just five minutes before.”
Doctors are seeing patients in four borrowed rooms, two of which have no sink or bed and two are in a different area of the hospital.
Dr Callum Duncan said: “We are down two-thirds of our consultation rooms.
“We are running our service as normal but we are left in a very difficult situation.”
GPs are also making phone calls to patients from rooms where other staff are working, instead of private, quiet consultation rooms.
It remains unclear how long it will take to rebuild the damaged section of the exterior wall and repair and refit the rooms, but GPs expect it to take several months.
Mr Duncan said his reaction to seeing the crash scene was “incredulity” and said: “We fairly quickly realised this was going to be months of pain.”
The partners, whose Feddinch and Strathcairn practices only merged in April to form Pipeland, praised the response of their staff, NHS Fife and patients.
Mr Haldane said: “This has very much galvanised what until three months ago were two separate teams.
“Staff pulled together under great adversity and within 24 hours they were back to manning the phones and taking care of patient records as normal.”
The section of outer wall damaged has been demolished and work is ongoing to strip out the interior before the rebuild commences.
NHS Fife chief executive Paul Hawkins said: “Whilst all clinical and GP services have resumed, the damage to the building means some GP patients will continue to experience minor disruption over the next few weeks.
“I would like to thank those affected for their patience and understanding during this time as we continue to work towards returning the hospital to normal business.
“Throughout this incident, our staff have been a credit to the organisation and it is because of their hard work and commitment that we have been able to adapt services and continue the provision of high quality care at St Andrews Community Hospital.”
A 27-year-old man was charged with road traffic offences in connection with the incident.
