NHS FIFE admitted that centralising A&E in Kirkcaldy was not beneficial for the people of Dunfermline – but WAS right for Fife.

And they say there’s no going back despite more than 31,000 people signing a petition calling for the re-opening of the emergency department at Queen Margaret Hospital.

It closed in January 2012 and the health board insisted they were proved right and there was “no clinical argument” for restoring the service to Dunfermline.

Local campaigner Jim Philp started the campaign and stated that the lives of people from West Fife were being put at risk due to the longer journey for emergency treatment in Kirkcaldy.

He handed in the petition in December and NHS Fife finally responded at Tuesday’s board meeting with a 25 page report that stated: There’s no room for A&E at QMH.

Staffing problems to run one emergency department far less two.

“No prospect” of recruiting staff to bring it back to QMH. Increased travel time from West Fife.

Population of Dunfermline has grown three times faster than Kirkcaldy since 2002.

A&E at the Vic instead of QMH results in “12,000 more people being within a 30-minute travel time”.

“No evidence” that longer journeys result in poorer care.

The board noted “that the original work to inform the decisions in Right for Fife has been proven to be correct based on the demographic and workforce changes since 2002”, that there was “no evidence to suggest care for the population of West Fife has deteriorated as a result of the changes” and agreed “there is no clinical argument for re-establishing a full emergency department on the QMH site”.

Dr Gordon Birnie, the medical director of the operations division, said, “There have been minor changes in the distribution of the population which were discussed in the decision-making process.

“But there are no major changes in demographics or policy which should lead the NHS Fife board to formally review and repeat the consultation process.

“The existing staff is not sufficient to support the establishment of a second emergency department in Fife and there is no realistic prospect that sufficient staff will become available in the immediate or medium-term future.

“The full range of support services that an emergency department requires are not currently available on the QMH site. There would be very significant workforce and estates difficulties in re-establishing these services on two sites.” The wide-ranging report, written by Dr Birnie, explained the background to the decision made by NHS Fife and approved by the Scottish Government in 2002. It was a central part of ‘Right for Fife’, the long-term strategy for NHS services in the Kingdom.

At the time, the board said that changes in the European Working Time Directive and in training requirements made running the same services at two sites “unsustainable”. There was also a need for more specialisation among staff, new models of care to attract “high-quality staff” and specialties on one site “to achieve optimal clinical results”.

The board said the “major public consultation exercise” for Right for Fife looked at population trends, patterns of demand, new technologies, the balance of care and meeting national standards. A range of options were developed and the preferred option was to maintain two hospitals but have just one A&E for Fife – the choice was Kirkcaldy or Dunfermline.

Dr Birnie’s report admitted they knew it would be a “particularly contentious issue” but said positioning A&E in Kirkcaldy resulted in “12,000 more people being within a 30-minute travel time” compared to locating the department in Dunfermline. Dunfermline had the newer hospital – QMH opened in 1993 – and better transport links with a railway station right next to it but the decision was taken and the A&E closed at QMH in January 2012.