Susan Deacon: A "radical development"

At a news conference in Aberdeen, Ms Deacon announced the city would be home to the first of three centres planned for Scotland by 2004.

The minister described it as "one of the most significant and radical developments in the recent history of the NHS".

"It's about building on our strong foundations and making full use of our range of skills and experience that we have available," Ms Deacon said.

"Harnessing alongside that modern communications and modern technology to meet patients' needs."

Satisfying demand

The Aberdeen centre, which will be operational by spring next year, will employ 85 nurses and about 40 other staff.

Its aim is to reduce pressure on GP out-of-hours services and hospital accident and emergency departments.

The British Medical Association has given the new service a cautious welcome, saying NHS 24 has potential but needs careful evaluation.

A similar system called NHS Direct which started two years ago in England and Wales, has led to complaints that doctors' workloads have increased.

Lesley McLay: "Innovative and exciting development"

However, changes since then have meant some GP co-operatives south of the border say their workload has been reduced by a third.

Lesley McLay, Director of Nursing at NHS 24 said: "I think it is one of the most innovative and exciting developments for nursing, probably in my whole career of 20 years.

"This is work that nurses do anyway, they give clinical assessments and this is a different way of delivering care and a way in which we can deliver to the public."

Maggie Emslie, of Grampian Local Health Council, welcomed the announcement and said the service was the natural corollary of greater consumer choice.

She said: "People do want ready access to all their services now, not just health services. I think this is going in the right direction.

"We have 24-hour supermarkets and I think this is just fulfilling the demand that is out there at the moment."

Dissenting voice

But Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish National Party's health spokeswoman, criticised the executive for the length of time it would take to get the helpline up and running.

"The announcement today from the Scottish government that they are finally going to get the NHS 24 service off the ground is welcome," she said.

"However, it should not be forgotten that the government promised that NHS 24 would be operational by early 2000 and in their health plan published last December, they then promised that the pilots would be rolled out during 2001.

"Today, we've been told that the first scheme will not be up and running until spring 2002.

"It appears that as usual, the Scottish government find it very easy to make commitments but find it very difficult to actually deliver change for the people of Scotland."