I DON’T know what planet Alex Neil MSP, Scottish health minister, is on when he disagrees with Alex Rowley MSP that there is no crisis in NHS Fife. (‘Op patients turned away’, Press, 4th September).Cancer patients waiting longer than they should be for treatment, patients which were told they may have the disease had to wait more than the minimum of 62 days (‘Shortages led to cancer patients waiting longer in Fife’, Press, 4th September). A&E department finding it hard to cope due to the amount of people attending and staff shortages adding to the problem.

Doctors and nurses run off their feet and completely shattered after doing 12-hour shifts. But despite this, doing a wonderful job, and if you have to go to the Victoria you will be well cared for, likewise, if you have to attend any of the clinics at the Queen Margaret Hospital.

No crisis Mr Neil? There is a crisis as Mr Rowley said and it has been there since the downgrading of the Queen Margaret Hospital.

But you and other health secretaries before you plus the members of Fife Health Board buried your heads in the sand and would not listen to the Dunfermline Press and the people of West Fife.

The crisis is not going to go away Mr Neil and can only get worse.

William Stirling, Clyde Crescent, Dunfermline