Susan Deacon: "Driving down waiting times"

The funding was announced by First Minister Henry McLeish and Health Minister Susan Deacon at the newly-opened �68m Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride on Monday. Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell also took part in the visit.

Mr McLeish said: "More junior doctors in every part of the country will help us to tackle areas in which we know the NHS can improve - reducing waiting, improving access and raising the quality of care.

"This is an investment in the future - today's junior doctors are the consultants and GPs of tomorrow."

Scotland currently has more than 4,200 junior doctors.

The extra cash will be invested over three years by the Scottish Council for post-graduate Medical and Dental Education, with most of the money being spent in the third year.

Best people

Ms Deacon told BBC Radio Scotland that the funding would help reduce hospital waiting times throughout the country.

"We want to make sure that we recruit the best people into the NHS in Scotland and that we retain them here," she said.

"We have been working very closely with the junior doctors to see how we can make improvements to the conditions and overall arrangements in hospitals to make sure we are effective in that aim."

Ms Deacon continued: "We want to keep driving down waiting times.

It will make working lives much better for the rest of us and it will also improve the quality of care at the sharp end

Jim McCaul, Scottish Junior Doctors Committee

"Too many people still wait too long for treatment and care. That's partly because of under-investment over the last 20 years.

"Investing in our workforce is a key part of continuing to take forward improvements.

"Putting more staff into the system is part of a bigger programme to re-build the NHS."

She also pointed out that 600 more consultants would be brought into the health service in Scotland over the next five years

The British Medical Association welcomed the government's commitment, but said it was imperative that mechanisms were put in place to retain doctors and provide them with a career structure.

Jim McCaul, the chairman of the Scottish Junior Doctors Committee, also welcomed the extra funding.

The extra cash has been welcomed

But he said: "As an act in isolation it would be meaningless.

"What we need is an overall investment in the health service.

"What we need is consultants, and clearly these 375 people need a job to go to."

Those leaving university to occupy the lower tiers in the pyramid needed the opportunity to get to the top of the profession.

He thought the main effect of the extra posts would be to reduce excessive hours worked by junior doctors.

"It will make working lives much better for the rest of us and it will also improve the quality of care at the sharp end," he said.