URGENT care services at Queen Margaret Hospital and across Fife could be redesigned as part of efforts to fill a £21m funding gap.

The Fife Health and Social Care Partnership’s Integration Joint Board (IJB) has approved a financial recovery plan to help reduce a projected budget overspend.

It says cuts and reductions will mainly impact staffing, respite provision and social work care packages. 

The recovery plan was ‘agreed in principle’ by the IJB at the board meeting on September 27 but senior leaders were asked for more detailed information before a final decision could be made.

A report to board members said further integration of their multidisciplinary workforce would enhance team effectiveness, supervision, support and staff experience.

READ MORE: Members wary of Fife’s Integrated Joint Board recovery plan

It stated: "It will redesign and look to make effective use of current resources across our four established urgent care centres (Adamson, St Andrews, Queen Margaret and Victoria Hospital) – agreed at IJB as part of a previous programme of transformation (June 2019).

"It is anticipated once implemented, the enhanced models of care and pathways will improve the care experience and reduce any organisational risks currently being managed."

The final plan was approved at the IJB board meeting on Friday.

Fiona McKay, Interim Director of the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “Difficult decisions have had to be made, but we are very clear despite the challenging financial position we face, those people at significant risk or who have a significant need in Fife will still get the help they need.

“The plan agreed today is an updated plan from the original presented to the IJB at the end of September. It’s the result of a tremendous amount of hard work, robust governance and working together with partners, trade unions and staff side colleagues.

“And it’s important to highlight despite the fact this plan is about bringing the budget back in line, we are also putting in systems to maintain quality and person safety, providing consistent sets of escalation, triggers and protocols too.”

The IJB agreed that there was a need to implement temporary, short-term measures “in year” to begin to bring the budget gap down. It is anticipated these will run until the end of the financial year (the end of March 2025).

These include the temporary re-mobilisation of some partnership staff to draw on the expertise and talent in the organisation and reduce spend on agency and bank staff -currently around £18m each year.

There will be a review of respite provision to review all current, un-used respite in excess of three weeks with all new respite allocations capped at three weeks instead of six, unless in exceptional circumstances.

The board will review social work assessments and reviews with a focus on prioritising those at most significant risk of harm and those most in need.

Ms McKay added: “Anyone affected by the approved changes or reviews will be contacted by the partnership in the coming weeks to inform them about what this means for them.

"Although work needs to happen at pace, we will not do so without communicating with people and our staff first.”