NHS trusts scrapped in bonfire of quangos

NHS trusts will be scrapped within five years in a radical shake- up of health care in Scotland.

The first step which has been described by the Scottish Executive as a "bonfire of bureaucracy" will see a purge of NHS boardrooms across the country. The total number of boardrooms will be cut from 43 to just 15 while the number of directors will be slashed by 100.

The Scottish Executive will then push through further reform by setting up a majorreview of the way the NHS is run in Scotland. This is expected to include getting rid of all NHS trusts within five years.

But the drastic plans were last night criticised for not being radical enough and for getting rid of the wrong organisations by opposition politicians.

Nicola Sturgeon, SNP health spokeswoman, welcomed the planned changes to NHS structure, but said they should be introduced faster and could be more radical. She also warned Health Minister Susan Deacon to ensure the new structures do not simply replace the bureaucracy currently at trust level with the same amount of bureaucracy elsewhere.

Mary Scanlon, spokeswoman on health for the Conservatives, argued for the opposite reform, stripping out the health board layer and leaving trusts to run the NHS in Scotland. "The reason the trusts were created was that decisions could be made closer to the people, reflecting the needs of communities," she said.

"Health boards had become very elitist and distant from the patient. I hope there is not going to be greater centralisation of power."

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