MORE THAN 10,000 people have now signed a petition calling for the return of Accident and Emergency services to Dunfermline’s Queen Margaret Hospital.

Jim Philp (62) started his campaign last month, with the Press featuring it on our front page.

He says lives are being put at risk due to the extra miles that patients across West Fife have to travel for A&E treatment at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

The Press reported that his campaign had got off to a flying start and now the Dunfermline man is determined to keep it going as it tipped over the five-figure mark.

Jim said, “They have made a big mistake here, you can’t have people travelling back and forth between hospitals like that when it’s an emergency.

“I didn’t expect this to gather so much momentum so quickly and it makes me determined to keep going, I’m not going to quit, I’ll take this to Brussels if I have to.” The petition has been supported by communities across West Fife and has been backed by Dunfermline MSP Cara Hilton, who will meet NHS Fife chief executive John Wilson on 2nd May to discuss the issue.

All emergency services were moved from Dunfermline to Kirkcaldy in 2012 under ‘Right for Fife’ proposals developed in 2001/2002 to modernise health provision across the Kingdom.

Jim added, “I’ve actually become an agony aunt now, people recognise me as the man that started this petition and they come up and tell me a story about their experience with the health servie. Some of them are awful.

“We need to see change, West Fife has been badly discriminated against.” Labour MSP Mrs Hilton told the Press that she was “not surprised” that the petition had attracted so many signatures.

She said, “As a Dunfermline resident myself I know that hospital services are a huge issue in our area and there is a tremendous level of support for returning as many services as possible to Queen Margaret Hospital.

“The decision to centralise services at the Victoria was taken more than a decade ago when Dunfermline was a very different place – thousands more houses have been built since then and thousands more are in the pipeline.

“It’s time that we take a fresh look at how to ensure the best possible NHS services for Dunfermline and West Fife.

“The journey to the Victoria from the West Fife villages can be as long as 45 minutes.

"In some tragic cases, that is simply too long.” NHS chief executive Mr Wilson stated previously that the move to a major single-site A&E department allowed the health authority to “deliver services to the population at sustainable and clinically safe levels of staffing”.

He added, “It ensures those most in need of urgent medical help are seen rapidly in a department able to respond safely and immediately to the most critical needs.”