A WEST Fife GP surgery says it has no issues with staffing and has invited patients to contact them with any problems.
Councillor Graeme Downie said he is aware of ongoing concerns about the High Valleyfield health centre after having a range of complaints raised with him and through the local community council.
After approaching the practice for a meeting and an update on the situation, he said he was frustrated with the response received.
It stated: "We would like to inform you there are no issues in the practice at present in terms of clinical staffing. We have had an appropriate level of clinical staffing on site each day.
READ MORE: New GPs take over at West Fife medical practice
"We would recommend that if you receive any complaints, that you advise patients to come to the practice directly and the practice manager will be happy to talk to them in relation to their specific complaint.
"Once they are redirected, we will also ensure that we deal with them directly under our complaints procedure.
"We hope to arrange a meeting with yourself and the local stakeholders in due course but in the interim this will enable the practice to deal with each complaint in a direct manner and ensure patients concerns are dealt with on a personal basis."
Cllr Downie said: "I am utterly frustrated by this, particularly the suggestion that people should get in touch to complain when one of the leading problems is that it often isn't possible to get through.
"I hope the practice follow through with their commitment here to engage better in the future so local people can work together to understand and improve the undoubtedly real challenges being faced.”
New contractors took over at the helm of Valleyfield Medical Practice at the beginning of November following long-running issues.
Previously, members of the public were left with no choice but to drive to Dunfermline to access healthcare and a campaign was started by the community council for improvements with people fearing it would take a death to solve the issues at the practice.
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