Claire Baker MSP has joined calls for the Scottish Government to get a grip over dwindling hospital bed numbers in Fife Health Board.

New figures recently realised show that 1,000 beds have been cut in hospitals across Scotland since the SNP came in to power in 2007.

In Fife Health Board bed numbers are at an all time low with a hundred fewer beds in 2012 than five years ago.

This follows a number of SNP health cuts, signed off by the former health secretary Nicola Sturgeon.

Since coming to power the SNP have presided over the loss of 2,500 nurses and midwives, a rise in accident and emergency waiting times and complaints reaching a record high.

Claire Baker MSP said:

“Despite pledges to protect the NHS budget the reality of the SNP’s choices in government is that patient care continues to suffer as the NHS buckles under the pressure of trying to do more with fewer resources.

“Patients in Fife are suffering, not through the fault of doctors and nurses, but because of government cut backs.”

“NHS Fife is being over stretched and there is a real fear that it will soon be at breaking point.