Concerns have been raised over the relocation of a vital Fife day care service hit by a staffing crisis.
The St David’s day centre in St Andrews is being temporarily moved to the Leng Resource Centre in Newport, more than 10 miles away, because of staff shortages.
Transport will be provided for people who use the service.
Health bosses have assured the public the situation will be reviewed in three weeks.
However, local Liberal Democrat councillor Jane Ann Liston and MSP Willie Rennie have raised fears the shift might become permanent as budget cuts start to bite.
In a statement, the pair said: “The worry is that this ‘temporary’ measure just might become permanent, as appears to be the intention with the out-of-hours GP service.
“It’s all very well providing transport but that increases the length of time the service users are in a bus, which is not ideal.
“In addition, public transport from St Andrews to Newport is practically non-existent, potentially making things more difficult for staff members and carers.”
Ms Liston and Mr Rennie have called on Fife Health and Social Care Partnership to stick to the time frame for services at the centre to return to normal operations.
“The partnership should also explain what is being done to prevent this happening again in the future,” they added.
“This does also raise the question, what other Fife services are also in such a precarious position?”
David Heaney, the divisional general manager from Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said a high number of unplanned absences among the management team at St David’s had made it necessary to introduce a temporary contingency arrangement.
“This is to ensure we have sufficient management capacity to oversee delivery of the service and ensure we provide sufficient support for service users,” he said.
“This is a temporary arrangement and it will be reviewed after three weeks as we are keen to return the service to St David’s as soon as possible.
“We continue to work closely with staff and service users to ensure the most appropriate transport arrangements are available,” he added.
