For over 50 years, the NHS has been part and parcel of what it means to be British. If you fall ill, the NHS is there. Its foundations – tax-based funding and care according to need – remain as valid today as ever. (Scottish Labour Party, 2001, p 19)

… as citizens we have failed to take real responsibility for our own health.

… in Scotland we still have some of the worst health statistics in Europe.

… improving our health service is not only about medical or social care…. It is also about improving standards of social care…. improving the quality of life.

We need reform to match investment – but we need reform to go with the grain of Scotland. I am as committed today (to its founding principles) as a generation of British people were to the NHS when it began in 1948. But we are building a health service for this new century and it must be a health service that takes those principles and applies them to the demands that we face today.

It is the duty of the Scottish Ministers to promote the improvement of the physical and mental health of the people of Scotland. The Scottish Ministers may do anything which they consider is likely to assist in discharging that duty…. (2003 National Health Service Reform [Scotland] Bill, part 2, section 7)

Scotland's economic performance currently lags behind the best international standards. With an ageing population projected for the coming decades, improved business growth and performance will depend in part on our ability to improve the health of the workforce, and to maintain and increase employment rates (Scottish Executive, 2003f, p 22).

… joint working in many areas may be desirable. In the care of the elderly it is essential…. We believe the old distinctions between, for example, a ‘medical’ and a ‘social’ bath, have no place in a modern care system.