Parking at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy is to be redesigned to make way for a £33 million orthopaedic centre.
The centre, due to open in 2022, will be built on one of the hospital’s main car parks next to the accident and emergency department.
It will accommodate services currently housed in the ageing tower block and increase the number of orthopaedic theatres from two to three.
NHS Fife is taking action to replace the 140 parking spaces that will be lost once construction starts and said the move would actually increase the number of bays available to 145.
A planning application was submitted this week for extra spaces for patients and visitors in existing car parks.
The staff car park at Whyteman’s Brae would also be extended under the plan.
The move follows concerns that a loss of parking would lead to unacceptable congestion on neighbouring streets.
Project director Alan Wilson said work was expected to start in the autumn and would be finished by the end of the year.
“Our new elective orthopaedic centre will provide a range of benefits for local people and make Fife a centre of excellence for orthopaedic surgery,” he said.
“We are committed to ensuring the development of the new centre does not detrimentally impact the accessibility of other services in and around the Victoria Hospital.
“Very early in the project we made the commitment that the overall number of car parking spaces would be maintained.
“In order to do so, we intend to provide additional spaces elsewhere in the vicinity of the hospital.”
NHS Fife’s head of estates, Paul Bishop, said ways to improve accessibility at all hospital sites were continually being explored.
“At Victoria Hospital, we are keen to do all that we can to enhance parking provision in and around the site, both as a means of improving access for patients and visitors and easing parking congestion on the roads surrounding the hospital,” he said.
The work of Fife’s orthopaedic service is renowned across Scotland and, in 2018, it became the first in the country to introduce same day hip replacements.
