Fife Labour finance spokesperson Mark Hood today described the
governance arrangements for the provision of social care in Fife as
being ‘in crisis’ and has joined the growing number of calls for the
Scottish Government to intervene in the affair.
The Lochgelly and Cardenden councillor has written to Public Health
Minister Shona Robinson asking her if she is aware of the crowing crisis
in the numbers of people trapped in hospitals and the complete inability
of the leadership of Fife Council and NHS Fife to work together to solve
the problem.
Mr Hood told the Minister; “We have a council leader to is unable to
rationally discuss the issue without veering into personal attacks on
anyone who dares to put forward an alternative point of view and now we
have the Chairman of the Operational Division within NHS Fife publicly
attacking the council. In the meantime the number of those individual
who are caught up in the crisis keeps growing with no sign of any
leadership to get a grip of the issues”.
“I am appealing to you to become directly involved in trying to sort
this mess out, for while the public authorities squabble and throw
insults and each other and anyone else who has a view, the people
trapped in the wards and their families continue to suffer in what has
become a lottery to get funding for social care in Fife. The people of
Fife are being badly let down and you must now act to take action and
intervene to have this matter addressed”.
Mr Hood told the Courier; “You really could not make this up. The
leadership of both organisations are failing the people in the wards and
their families and that is why the Scottish Government must step in and
take a grip of this situation”.
