New GP contractors sought to take over running of two medical practices in Levenmouth

NHS Fife and the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership are seeking new GP contractors to take over the running of both Kennoway Medical Practice and Methilhaven Surgery in Buckhaven.

Kennoway Medical Practice has been operated by NHS Fife and the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership since October 2023 after the previous GP partners were unable to continue providing general medical services from the practice. 

Similarly, Methilhaven Surgery has been operated by NHS Fife and the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership since August 2022, when it moved from the previous site on Methilhaven Road to Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital.

The provision of services from Kennoway Medical Practice and Methilhaven Surgery are now being made available as a combined practice list as part of a tender process.

The aim of the tender process is to attract new GP contractors for the Practices with the clinical staffing resources to provide the good standard of service that patients expect and deserve. Those interested in taking over the general medical services contract are being invited to submit a detailed proposal using the Public Contracts Scotland website, outlining how they would intend to deliver services for patients at both practices.

Once received, a thorough process of assessment and evaluation will be completed for each submission early next year, with any future GP contractors expected to deliver services from both Kennoway Health Centre, and a branch surgery at Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital. The preferred proposal must then be approved by the NHS Fife Board.

The process of tendering contracts to provide general medical services has been carried out successfully in other areas of the country, and follows recent tenders elsewhere in Fife which saw four other practices return to independent contractor status. NHS Fife and the Fife Health and Social Care are following the well-established national procurement framework to ensure the tendering process is both thorough and robust.

The process of engaging with the staff in each practice has begun and NHS Fife is also contacting to all citizens served by the practices to inform them of these developments.

NHS Fife Medical Director, Dr Christopher McKenna said:

“We know how important it is that citizens of Fife have access to good quality local medical services.

“Both Methilhaven Surgery and Kennoway Medical Practice have been run by NHS Fife and the Fife Health and Social Partnership for some time, allowing us to prepare these practices to return independent contractor status. This process of making the service available via a tender process has successfully enabled us to source new GP contractors for a number of other practices in Fife in recent years, and we hope to do likewise at Methilhaven and Kennoway. 

“Patients at these practices should be assured, however, that if new management is not found through this process then we will ensure people still have continued and uninterrupted access to appropriate local medical services.

“Most importantly of all, any parties seeking to take over the running of any of the practices will have to demonstrate that they have the clinical staffing resources to provide patients with a good level of service.

“The process of tendering the contract to provide general medical services will take a number of months to complete, and we are committed to ensuring that patients are kept up to date with any developments throughout.” 

A patient information hub has been created on the NHS Fife website at: www.nhsfife.org/generalmedicalservices, where there are answers to a number of frequently asked questions.

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