OVERNIGHT out-of-hours services at Queen Margaret Hospital will be stopped for three months due to nursing and medical staff shortages.

The drastic contingency action, which begins from Monday, has been implemented by Fife Health and Social Care Partnership after they admitted to being unable to cover all overnight shifts, which they said could compromise patient safety.

It means that, although out-of-hours operations will run from 6pm-midnight Monday to Friday, and from 8am-midnight on weekends and public holidays, as normal at Queen Margaret, they will only be provided between midnight and 8am at Kirkcaldy's Victoria Hospital.

Describing the announcement as "extremely concerning", Dunfermline MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville has demanded that the contingency measures "must be reversed as soon as possible", and action to be taken to resolve the staffing problems.

Dr Alan McGovern, the partnership's clinical director for the West Division, admitted that difficulties in recruiting GPs and other medical staff for out-of-hours work had put "enormous pressure" on delivering services, which have also been affected in Glenrothes and St Andrews.

He said: "The safety of every single patient in Fife is our first priority.

"As with most areas in Scotland, difficulty in recruiting GPs and primary care medical staff for out-of-hours work has put enormous pressure on delivering the service.

"In Fife, the out-of-hours service has only been able to maintain cover through daily monitoring and enormous efforts by all staff.

"Unfortunately, we are now in a position where we are unable to cover all the overnight shifts, meaning we have had to move to contingency measures to ensure patient safety.

"Between midnight and 8am, around 11 people attend Queen Margaret Hospital, Glenrothes Hospital and St Andrews centres in any one night. They will now go to the centre at the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy.

"These contingency measures will be reviewed in three months."

However, Ms Somerville commented: "The news that Fife Health and Social Care Partnership is introducing contingency measures for out-of-hours service is extremely concerning and must be reversed as soon as possible.

"It is crucial that steps are taken to ensure that the staffing issue at the root of this problem is resolved. As such, I am seeking assurances from Fife Health and Social Care Partnership that plans are in place to increase staffing levels to the necessary levels in order to ensure that services are fully reinstated within the estimated three months, or earlier."

Michael Kellet, partnership director, added: "We've had to take immediate action in relation Primary Care Emergency Services in Fife to ensure we can continue to deliver a clinically safe and sustainable service over the next few months. As we do so we will continue to develop our plans for the longer term measure for urgent care.

"We will consult the public on those longer term plans before any permanent decisions are made."

Fife Health and Social Care Partnership added that home visits would not be affected by the measures, while operations at Queen Margaret's minor injuries unit would also continue as normal.

Last month, NHS Fife told the Press that there were "no plans" to cut the unit's hours after a source alleged that a review was underway with a view to closing the unit at 7.30pm each night.