Question reference: S5W-20104
- Asked by: Annabelle Ewing, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 21 November 2018
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 3 December 2018
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the establishment and operation of GP community hub fellowships in Fife.
Answer
The Community Hub project in Fife commenced in 2015. The first year consisted of a training year for the new GP Fellows (qualified GPs) to furnish them with additional skills followed by two years of guaranteed employment in the "hub" located at the Queen Margaret Hospital.
The Fife pilot has centred on better management of patients with frailty in the community, building on the expertise developed by the newly trained GP fellows. Community Health and Wellbeing Hubs are being developed across Fife and the three GP fellows have during their time in post helped to shape this service model working alongside other primary and secondary care doctors.
The ethos of the Hub is to improve coordination of health and social care systems, reduce duplication and simplify access to services. By teams working together more efficiently patients are experiencing more rapid local access and improved joined up care. An improvement in the interface and clinical pathways supporting older people being cared for at home or nearer to home in Fife has already been observed.
An expansion of the community hub project into old age psychiatry is currently being considered.