Having been comatose for months on end, the Lochgelly Health Centre campaign seems to be stirring (Health Centre ‘not up to standard’, 18th October 2016). With Steven Murray, who is Councillor Mark Hood’s election agent, now taking centre-stage, it’s hard not to see this as a Labour move to hang on to its dwindling vote in the coming Council elections.
The Labour campaigner and community councillor made some extraordinary statements, implying that his work at the Lochgelly Health Round Table has transformed primary health care services across Fife.
What a bold claim! Unfortunately the reality of the situation does not match the grandstanding by the Labour campaigner. The approach to integrate NHS and local council care services is currently being implemented across Scotland.
Surely Mr Murray isn’t taking the credit for adopting a new health care approach across Scotland, or is his fantasy to only claim credit for its implementation in Fife?
In the same week his boss Councillor Hood kick-started the ‘NHS Fife fit for all’ campaign. This tired campaign is regularly dusted off come election time, but what has actually been achieved by messrs Murray and Hood?
Of course Lochgelly needs a new health centre, and this has been recognised by councillors as far back as 2007.
Typically, the localised Labour campaign is taking the stance that any delay to a new build is unacceptable and the fault of the Scottish Government. The reality is that the blame lies firmly at the feet of Fife Labour who have failed to act on the concerns that have been raised by residents for almost a decade.
Due to repeated inaction our local community has seen a decline in the delivery of primary health care, with access to GPs getting worse by the day. While staff are overworked and stressed, doing their best to care for patients, they are used as a political football by Labour, desperate to avoid another election wipe-out in 2017.
