Fife Conservative Councillor Dave Dempsey has welcomed the news that Fife Council and NHS Fife are to discuss the potential for health-related planning policies in the upcoming Fife Place Plan.
Cllr Dempsey said “When Fife Council looks at planning applications for new houses, it takes particular interest in whether nearby schools and roads will cope. Quite often, planning permission comes with conditions that oblige the developer to pay substantial sums for extra classrooms, improved road junctions and the like.
“Yet, despite regular objections from the public that the local GP surgery is already over-busy, the Council can’t take that into account. Typically, the planning report reads something like
In response to the representations received from members of the public regarding the impact of the development on healthcare services locally, this is not an issue that can be addressed by the planning system. The NHS operate a list system which allocates a certain number of registered patients per GP. If a GP has too many patients registered, then funding is available for a new GP as part of that practices business case to expand services where required to meet additional demand. The funding of healthcare is an issue for central government. GP practices are often run as individual businesses who make a business case to expand and establish the practices if they seek to do so.
“That would be fine if the NHS commented on planning applications, which it’s invited to do as one of the Statutory Consultees. At the recent Council meeting, I asked what the last occasion was on which NHS Fife commented on a planning application. The answer was 2022. There have been many major housing applications in Fife since then, many of which have had to be approved without consideration of the impact on health service provision.
“However, the answer at the Council meeting also said that “Through the ongoing review of the Fife Place Plan, Planning Services will be discussing with NHS Fife the potential for health related planning policies and considering whether health infrastructure could/should be included with developer obligations”. If this comes to pass, it could add GP surgeries to school classrooms and road junctions on the list of things that have to be brought up to scratch when new houses are built.
“I’ll be keeping an eye on this as the new Place Plan progresses.