health

IF there is one area of the Parliament's activity where our new legislative body will be judged on its achievements or its failures, it is in the field of health. Improving the NHS is a priority of the politicians and the majority of the population, and the voters are constantly looking for tangible progress.

It may be early days, but the signs of a real commitment by the executive to improving Scottish health care are encouraging. The Government's UK-wide determination to be seen to spend more on health has had an impact north of the Border, with an additional #173m being targeted at the NHS here with the aim of providing better services and bringing down waiting lists.

The place of health provision in terms of the Scottish Parliament's priorities simply cannot be underestimated. It accounts for #1 in every #7 of public money spent, and nurses are the largest single block of workers employed by the Executive.

Factor in the affection with which the Scottish people regard the NHS, and it is easy to see why the subject is rarely absent from the Holyrood debating chamber.

Like their compatriots in other sectors such as education, health workers are finding that one of the biggest advantages of the Scottish Parliament is its relative accessibility. Senior staff such as consultants are finding that they can obtain direct access to Ministers, and there is a belief that concerns are understood in a way not possible under the Westminster system.

Jim Devine, health official with the public service union Unison and a veteran of debates with successive governments about the role of the NHS in Scotland, says he believes that devolution has been extremely positive as far as health provision is concerned. He says that during the course of the 1992-97 Westminster parliament, 90 minutes of debating time in the Commons was given over to Scottish health issues. Now, he says, it is clearly a priority.

Devine believes there is a new will to make the NHS succeed, although he says anyone expecting instant improvements may be disappointed. ''In practice, you need 18 months to two years for Government money to percolate down to the wards. But the cash which has been put in is totally new money and will have an impact.

''There has to be a recognition that we have to tackle the funding problem and the idea of doing that overnight just isn't on. However, you can see smiles back on faces in the sector.''

Devine concedes that not all in the garden is rosy. He welcomes the building of eight new Scottish hospitals, but his union continues to have concerns about the fact that the construction will mostly be funded by the Government's Private Finance Initiative.