Health trust shake-up ruled out

Waiting times will be among the priorities

First Minister Jack McConnell has dismissed reports that the Scottish Executive is planning to abolish NHS trusts north of the border.

He told BBC Scotland that the focus would be on the immediate priorities within the health service rather than restructuring.

And he said the priority for the coming year was to tackle "critical issues" such as cancer, services for children and waiting times.

His comments followed an article in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper which suggested that the executive planned to scrap the 28 trusts to give ministers greater control.

Jack McConnell: "Critical issues"

Health unions and the Scotland Patient's Association have backed any move to scrap the trusts.

And the Scottish National Party said there should be "no further delay in cutting the bloated NHS bureaucracy".

An executive spokesman said a review of management was under way, but stressed that there were no immediate plans for changes to health boards and trusts.

Mr McConnell told BBC Radio Scotland's Eye to Eye programme: "We cannot spend the next 12 months dealing with those issues when we have got critical issues to deal with in terms of our cancer services, waiting times and services for children.

"There is a desperate need in Scotland to improve the health and eating habits, the exercise habits and the overall health promotion of the people - these are our targets in the next 12 months.

What we need is a radical overhaul of the way in which the health service is run

Nicola Sturgeon, SNP health spokeswoman

"Longer term services or structures will take second place to immediate priorities."

However, SNP health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon said Labour had failed to cut "bloated NHS bureaucracy".

"NHS trusts are a holdover from the failed internal market and should have been swept away years ago, yet they are still in place," she said.

"Labour hint, through unnamed sources, that they might be thinking about doing something. That is as far as they will go.

"What we need is a radical overhaul of the way in which the health service is run."

She said bureaucracy should be slimmed down and people given more power to decide the care their community needs.