Board papers and statistics
NHS Fife Board: Papers from the latest Board meeting on Wednesday 25 September can be viewed here. The next meeting takes place on Tuesday 26 November.
Performance: Information on key performance data, including A&E, cancelled operations, delayed discharges, and diagnostic waiting times. The latest information can be viewed here.
Workforce: Statistics on staffing and vacancies are published quarterly by NHS Education for Scotland. The latest publication can be viewed here.
Main updates
Planned care waiting times
As the winter months approach, we want to provide an update on our progress in tackling the backlog of planned care procedures caused by the pandemic.
Despite ongoing efforts, we continue to face challenges in several specialties due to the significant number of cases and increasing demand for complex care. While we haven't fully met national waiting time targets, our initiatives have helped us outperform the national average and set a strong foundation for further improvements. These initiatives include:
- Day surgery unit at Queen Margaret Hospital: reconfiguring part of the hospital has enabled us to increase the number of procedures performed.
- Validating waiting lists: using a text message initiative to help patients manage their appointments and ensure they are still needed.
- Additional clinics and theatre sessions: more clinics and theatre sessions have increased capacity.
- National Treatment Centre: our state-of-the-art orthopaedic centre has created greater capacity for specialist planned care in this area.
- Improving pre-assessment pathways: streamlining the pre-assessment process helps to identify potential risks, plan appropriate care, and ensure patient suitability for procedures.
The latest information on key performance data can be viewed here.
Mental health services
Mental health continues to be a priority for NHS Fife and the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, but we face challenges related to waiting times and the physical state of our inpatient facilities.
Our four inpatient mental health wards are located across Fife: Lynebank, Queen Margaret, Whyteman's Brae, and Stratheden. We've been investing in refurbishments to ensure these facilities meet high standards. However, some areas, particularly at Stratheden Hospital, require more extensive changes to comply with modern mental health care standards.
Stratheden's outdated infrastructure makes it difficult to provide optimal inpatient services. To address this, NHS Fife has developed a business case that proposes consolidating our inpatient services into a single, modern facility. Unfortunately, a Scottish Government pause on new-build capital projects has delayed this plan.
In the meantime, we're focusing on other improvements that can be implemented more quickly and without significant capital investment. These measures will help enhance our services in the short term.
Despite these challenges, we remain committed to reducing waiting times and improving access to mental health services. We're doing this through increased investment, recruiting specialised staff, and collaborating with partner organisations to deliver comprehensive support across Fife.
Workforce
Relative to previous years, NHS Fife is reporting a relatively low number of vacancies. This is aside from a small number of specialities where recruitment challenges have been long-standing and are mirrored nationally, such as adult psychiatry.
Agency use continues to be an area where we are working to reduce our reliance, although agency locum use is often necessary to maintain some services at a safe and effective level. Several local and national initiatives are underway, including removing the use of some agencies and bringing in greater clinical oversight, to regulate agency use.
Whilst national funding is no longer available to support international recruitment, this approach has been a successful strategy for NHS Fife. We are also working with gateway doctors – qualified professionals from other countries – to assist them with acquiring the necessary qualifications to register and practice in the UK.
Statistics on staffing and vacancies are published quarterly by NHS Education for Scotland. The latest publication can be viewed here.
Fife Health and Social Care Partnership (FHSCP) finances
FHSCP is facing a significant budget overspend of over £21 million by the end of this financial year. This forecast directly impacts NHS Fife, as the FHSCP risk-share agreement we share with Fife Council requires us to absorb 64% of the overspend, totalling over £13 million.
NHS Fife has been diligently working to reduce its budget deficit through its Re-form, Transform, Perform agenda. Despite achieving a notable reduction from £54 million to £18 million, the FHSCP overspend projection presents a significant challenge.
FHSCP has developed a financial recovery plan, which was initially approved in principle by the Integration Joint Board (IJB) on September 27. More detailed discussion is expected to follow and a wellbeing working group has been set up, meeting for the first time on Monday 7 October. This group looks to identify and mitigate any risks that may arise through adoption of the recovery plan. As a key partner in the delivery of services delegated to the IJB, NHS Fife – through the executive directors – are working with colleagues to ensure that the recovery plan is developed in adherence to the necessary governance and impact assessments for other services across NHS Fife. The IJB will receive a further update later this month.
Annual Review 2024
NHS Fife’s Annual Review took place on Monday 30 September within the Victoria Hospital’s Education Centre. The public session, which included a performance update and in-person question and answer session, can be viewed here.
Dental services
Banbeath Dental Practice
A recent local news report indicated that Clyde Munro, the dental corporation that owns Banbeath Dental Practice in Leven, plans to close the practice.
NHS Fife has been in ongoing discussions with Clyde Munro to clarify their intentions and understand their plans. The group has cited difficulty recruiting dentists and locum dentists over the past nine months as the reason for the closure. This would affect over 5,000 patients.
While the practice is expected to remain open until early November, we are continuing to discuss definitive closure timelines with Clyde Munro. Until the closure, patients should contact the practice as usual. For those unable to find a new dentist, emergency dental care will be available through the NHS Fife Public Dental Service.
NHS Fife is working with several large dental corporations, including Clyde Munro, to stay informed about their operations and ensure timely communication with patients when necessary.
Local dental challenges
At our Annual Review we acknowledged the significant challenges facing NHS dentistry in Fife, which are mirrored across the UK. We are actively collaborating with various stakeholders to address these issues.
Recruitment and retention of dentists remains a challenge. To combat this, we have successfully applied to the Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) to include Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, and Dunfermline. SDAI provides grants to support NHS dental provision in areas where access to general dental services is low. These grants incentivise new practices and dentist retention through significant payments.
Since the Covid pandemic, the landscape of local dentistry has shifted from mainly smaller NHS-run practices to larger corporate entities operating more privately. As such, this change has altered contractual arrangements and limited our influence over practice decisions.
Unlike General Medical Services, NHS Fife does not have a statutory requirement to provide NHS dentistry, but we are committed to looking at how to improve NHS dental provision that is within our control and remit.
Fife first to offer blood test for pre-eclampsia
NHS Fife is the first health board in Scotland to introduce a targeted blood test for pregnant women at risk of pre-eclampsia.
Pre-eclampsia is a serious condition that can be dangerous for both women and their babies.
The introduction of PLGF testing will help significantly reduce the number of unnecessary inpatient admissions for suspected pre-eclampsia and minimise disruption to women and their families during pregnancy. More information is available here.
GP contractors sought for Kennoway and Methilhaven
New GP contractors are sought to take over the running of both Kennoway Medical Practice and Methilhaven Surgery in Buckhaven. These practices have been managed by NHS Fife since 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Contractors are being asked to submit proposals via Public Contracts Scotland, outlining their plans to deliver services for patients at both locations. The successful contractor will be expected to operate from Kennoway Health Centre and a branch surgery at Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital.
NHS Fife is following a well-established national procurement framework to ensure a fair and transparent process. The process of engaging with the staff has begun and we are also contacting to all patients served by the practices to update them. More information is available here.
Parking at vaccination clinics
You will be aware from previous updates that we have recently moved the sites of our vaccination clinics in Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy and West Fife.
We recognise that parking at our sites can be challenging at times, and patients attending for vaccinations have raised this with us. Parking is one of a range of factors we considered when choosing the new venues, alongside wheelchair accessibility, availability of public transport, security, and other matters.
The delivery of the vaccination programme in Fife has evolved over the last 18 months as we move out the pandemic response and into a ‘business as usual’ state. Part of this evolution has been to move away from our use of community centres and shop units, which have been extremely costly and are no longer an appropriate use of our financial resources in the current climate.
We want to make vaccination as accessible as possible, and parking continues to be an important consideration when planning appointments for our upcoming winter programme. Mitigations are being introduced at some sites to support the provision of patient parking and we are asking patients to be on time for their appointment, rather than early, to help prevent parking issues. We are also reassuring patients that they will still be seen if they are late due to difficulties with parking.
2024 NHS Fife staff awards
Last week, we hosted our annual NHS Fife Staff Awards. The event was held in the Glen Pavilion in Dunfermline where the accomplishments and contributions of individuals and teams across the organisation were celebrated.
The awards were sponsored by Fife Health Charity and Blink with Fife Council hosting us at the Glen Pavilion. More information, including photographs and a full list of winners, can be viewed here.
Councillor Mary Bain-Lockhart appointed to NHS Fife Board
Councillor Mary Bain-Lockhart has been appointed to the NHS Fife Board. Councillor Bain-Lockhart replaces Graeme Downie MP, who stepped down from his role after being elected as a member of parliament for the Dunfermline and Dollar constituency.
At a recent meeting of Fife Council, Councillor Bain-Lockhart was selected as the local authority’s spokesperson for Health and Social Care, becoming the Council’s representative on the NHS Fife Board. Councillor Bain-Lockhart serves as the representative for the Lochgelly, Cardenden and Benarty ward.
Cherry Blossom memorial mural
Our new Cherry Blossom memorial mural is providing bereaved families and loved ones a space to remember their lost babies.
The interactive artwork has been created by maternity care assistant and award-winning artist, Kelly McNeill. The use of the Cherry Blossom is symbolic as whilst their lives are fleeting, they are incredibly beautiful.
The memorial mural is part of a larger project to redesign part of the consultant-led unit, which includes the separation the bereavement suite and labour ward. More information is available here.
Medicines waste reduction campaign
We have launched a social media campaign aiming to raise awareness of the number of medicines that go to waste and the impact this has.
Unused medicines cannot be recycled or re-used and local disposal costs around £1 million each year. There are also health and safety implications for stockpiling medicines.
We are asking people to help us reduce waste and help us to strive for a more environmentally and financially sustainable future. See an example of our campaign here.
Fife Health Charity launches community grants programme
Fife Health Charity has opened its first community grants programme for charities working with children and young people. Grants of up to £5,000 are available.
The programme is open to organisations that are registered with OSCR the Scottish Charity Regulator, working with young people (ages 0-25) and their families, delivering work and operating in Fife, and are able to provide a bank statement in their organisation’s name. More information is available here.
NHS Fife awarded sustainable food prize
NHS Fife has been awarded the Sustainable Food Place Silver Award for our joint Food4Fife Strategy in partnership with Fife Council. The award recognises our work across Fife to promote healthy, sustainable, and local food.
Food4Fife aims to tackle challenges including climate emissions from the food system, food poverty and diet-related ill-health. Food4Fife are working towards increasing the amount of locally grown food available for people living in Fife, including within school, university, hospital, and care home meals.
Scotland’s Climate Week
We marked Scotland's Climate Week 2024 by highlighting the contributions of two of our sustainability officers, Kathryn Hastie, and Yasmine Morgan. The duo who joined the health board through an internship and have since become instrumental in driving a more environmentally conscious culture within the organisation.
Kathryn and Yasmine have spearheaded numerous initiatives to reduce NHS Fife's carbon footprint and their projects have included increasing the use of green spaces, encouraging active travel, and promoting sustainable practices in operating theatres. You can read the profile here.
Five-year-old marks 100th blood donation at Victoria Hospital
Family, friends, and staff at the Victoria Hospital have been celebrating young Lilly-Anna receiving her 100th blood donation.
The five-year-old suffers from Diamond-Blackfan anaemia syndrome, which is a very rare blood disorder that affects people’s bone marrow, preventing it from producing enough red blood cells. Lilly-Anna has been receiving blood transfusions since she was six months old to help her live a healthy life. Watch the celebration here.
Neurodivergence support roadshows
We’re providing free roadshows showcasing some of the support available to neurodivergent children and young people. The sessions take place across Fife and are particularly helpful where children show differences in development around thinking and learning, managing emotions and overactivity. The sessions take place from 2-5pm at:
- Thursday 31 October, Templehall Community Centre, Kirkcaldy
- Wednesday 20 November, Main Hall, Lynebank, Hospital
Vaccination
Maternity flu vaccination opportunities
Patients are now being offered the flu vaccine at routine hospital maternity appointments. Drop-in clinics are available on the weekend of 26/27 October where no appointment is needed:
- Sat 26 and Sun 27 October
- Queen Margaret and Victoria antenatal clinics
- 9am- 4pm
The drop-ins are for those without a routine appointment that want the vaccine.