Last week I raised the closure of the out of hours centres in Dunfermline, St Andrews and Glenrothes with the Health Secretary.

Tonight there will be a public meeting in St Andrews with another scheduled to take place in Dunfermline.

I have been warning the Scottish Government of a GP crisis for some time. If there are well known difficulties with practices struggling to recruit GPs for during the day, it is unsurprising that finding cover at night is even harder.

In response to my question the Scottish Government admitted that there were “significant issues” in Fife.

The Scottish Government must accept their own responsibility. There are still many GP practices across Fife facing difficulties in recruiting full time GPs, instead relying on locums or being under the control of the health board. The out-of-hours services are just the latest services to be added to this list.

The reality is that these services won’t reopen without GPs and full clinical cover. The Scottish Government must get a grip on the national shortages facing Fife and Scotland.