THERE are mounting calls on NHS Fife to restore vital hospital services to Dunfermline.

Last week, it was announced that the Kingdom's chemotherapy unit had returned to Victoria Hospital while calls have also been made to reverse the recent relocation of the hospice which moved back to Kirkcaldy earlier this year.

Coupled with the loss of a maternity and an A&E unit in recent times, pleas have been made that Dunfermline's health service provision reflects its city status.

From Scotland's eight cities, just Dunfermline and Stirling are without accident and emergency units.

A motion calling for change will be made at next week's meeting of the City of Dunfermline Area Committee by Councillor Aude Boubaker-Calder who said the city is Fife's "poor sibling" in the healthcare field.

“Despite being the biggest settlement in Fife and one of Scotland’s fastest growing cities, Dunfermline is once again the poor sibling in Fife when it comes to healthcare," she said.

"Time and time again we are seeing closure of wards after closure of wards, including the A&E service, the palliative care in February, the chemotherapy services and the threat of closing the hospice permanently. I am saying now – enough is enough!

“I have raised this motion to ask NHS Fife to provide a full explanation to councillors but also to rethink this decision. I had a close family member recently who went through chemotherapy, and if they had to travel all the way from the West of Fife to Kirkcaldy, it would have been extremely difficult for them.

“We should be seeing more, not less, services at the Queen Margaret Hospital, especially now that Dunfermline is a city. I am fed up with us losing out time and time again and will keep fighting for local services.”

Committee convener, Councillor James Calder, will second the motion.

He added: “We have a fantastic facility in the Queen Margaret Hospital, but it is being under-utilised. I firmly believe that we should be pushing for as much healthcare as possible being delivered locally."

Dunfermline North councillor Gavin Ellis said action was needed to offer services reflecting the recent award of city status.

"Recently my wife and I experienced the reality of not having the full maternity unit and A&E at the Queen Margaret. In December our son was born, delivered by myself in a cold bathroom at home as the ambulance that was being dispatched wouldn’t make it to us in time nor could my wife make the journey to the Victoria," he said.

"Imagine if we had a maternity unit less than five minutes from us. For us, both mum and baby were fine. Can that always be guaranteed when there are no local services on this side of Fife?

"It is distressing to think about what could happen were that situation or another emergency such as a stroke or heart attack to occur to a resident of the West Fife villages.

"Whilst I support the cause of the hospice, this issue is far greater and demands that all political parties stop playing games with our hospital and focus on getting our services back. Apparently we are now a city so let’s have the facilities to go with that."

While NHS Fife have said no decisions have yet been taken about permanent changes to hospice care, last week Director of Acute Services Claire Dobson said the chemotherapy unit move to the Queen Margaret was only ever a temporary move at the start of the pandemic.

"It was always intended that the service would return to the purpose-built Haematology/ Oncology Day Unit at Victoria Hospital when safe to do so," she said. "The return of the service to the Victoria Hospital enables treatment times to be extended into the evenings due to the availability of an emergency medical response team and allows patient to access face-to-face support from the Maggie’s Centre, which is also based at the Victoria Hospital.

"Patient transport services are available for those otherwise unable to travel to Kirkcaldy, as there was for patients elsewhere in Fife travelling to Queen Margaret Hospital for treatment previously.

"Importantly, the return of our haematology service to the Victoria Hospital enables us to reinstate other important services, which were displaced at the start of the pandemic to facilitate the initial relocation of haematology to Queen Margaret, with antenatal services and our pain management clinics due to return to Dunfermline in the coming weeks."