Scotland’s Health Secretary pledged to heed concerns about changes to Fife’s out-of-hours GP service before determining its future.
Jeane Freeman promised a “considered and reasoned” examination of the proposal to permanently cease providing the service from St Andrews and Glenrothes hospitals.
Thousands of people have signed a petition objecting to the prospect of GP cover overnight and at weekends being provided only from Victoria Hospital, in Kirkcaldy, or from there and Queen Margaret Hospital, in Dunfermline.
The loss of the service elsewhere could mean a lengthy journey to Kirkcaldy for those from north-east Fife, including elderly people and students, who need to see a doctor outside normal surgery hours.
Both St Andrews Students’ Association and North East Fife MSP Willie Rennie urged Ms Freeman to call a halt to the proposal by Fife Health and Social Care Partnership as she visited St Andrews University on Wednesday.
Ms Freeman said: “I need to wait and see what the consequences of the consultation are – the concerns that I’m hearing from others about the consultation process itself as well as the propositions within it.
“At that point I will take my time to make some considered and reasoned examination about what we might do.”
The overnight primary care emergency service at St Andrews, Glenrothes and Dunfermline hospitals was withdrawn temporarily in April due to staff shortage and, the partnership said, to ensure a clinically safe and sustainable service.
Ms Freeman said: “Our intention as a government is that healthcare should be delivered as close to home or a homely setting as is possible and viable.
“The viability question comes in in part on the basis of assessments about what makes something clinically safe.
“In some instances you need a high volume of a particular service in order to make it clinically safe. In some instances less so. It’s also about viability in terms of our capacity to resource that.”
