Trust boards are set to change

Ms Deacon announced last month that there would be major changes to the way decisions are made in the NHS.

It is understood she wants to see the service become focused on the outcome of patient care, not financial targets.

The health plan is expected to cut the number of non-executive directors on NHS trusts and health boards to the bare minimum.

That could mean up to 100 quango appointees facing the axe from January onwards.

There will be new representation at boardroom level for each trust's chief executive as well as clinical workers and managers.

The new ideas have come in the wake of a massive consultation exercise, including an opinion poll which asked 3,000 people for their views on the NHS.

'Much to be done'

Ms Deacon said that what sets the plan apart is its reliance on patient input.

"We've listened to patients the length and breadth of Scotland and we've spoken to staff and people delivering frontline care and with them identified priorities.

Susan Deacon: "More being treated quickly"

"The NHS has suffered from under funding - there's much to be done to improve the health service in Scotland but we've made a big start already and I want to accelerate the pace of change," said Ms Deacon.

She added: "I want to reduce bureaucracy. I want to make sure that the record additional investment goes to the front line and reaches patients."

"We have to work to reduce waiting. I've been clear about that since the day and hour I was appointed," she said.

"I'm pleased more people are being treated more quickly in the NHS."

But even before the Scottish Health Plan has been launched, some are expressing concern.

'Remote and bureaucratic'

Speaking on BBC Newsnight Scotland, Ian Mullen of Forth Valley NHS Trust said: "I do think that it is very important to ensure that we don't go back to the mid 1980s set up where we had one integrated health system in each area.

"In those days the health boards were really quite remote from the public, quite bureaucratic, so I think one of the things health trusts have done is to focus much more on patients and patient needs."

Opposition politicians said they would look closely at the plan.

The Scottish National Party's Nicola Sturgeon said: "A document based on pledges and aspirations will not do for a government that has made pledges with waiting lists, waiting lists which we have seen go up.

"The plan must recognise the reality of the health service in Scotland today, there are 3,000 fewer beds, 900 fewer nurses, we have a nursing shortage in this country and waiting is going up.

'Missing the point'

"A plan which does not address these issues will miss the point.

Mary Scanlon, Conservative MSP, said the stripping out of the internal market to date had not benefited patients.

She added: "Waiting lists are 2,000 more than when Labour came to power. In the Mori survey, only 13% of those polled felt that things had got better in the last few years.

"It is a Conservative policy to strip out health broads, we want the decisions to be made closer to patients and working with hospital trusts will help to do that.

"Like the SNP, if we see anything that is helpful, which is beneficial to patients then we will be there and be supporting it."