ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates a number of areas relating to policy making and implementation where the Scottish health administration, while itself undergoing change, was able to follow its own agenda. The Scottish Board of Health (SBH) was established in 1919 and became the umbrella unit for all the existing components of Scottish health administration, including the Local Government Board for Scotland, the Scottish Insurance Commissioners, and the Highlands and Islands Board. The National Health Service (NHS) Scotland legislation seemed to be a compromise between the need for a comprehensive health service, which followed to a great extent the 1946 NHS Act for England and Wales, and yet did not neglect the traditions of independent Scottish health policy. Under the new SBH, several Consultative Councils were created as a vehicle to canvass interested opinion from around Scotland on the shape and functions of the new State health agency.
