ABSTRACT
The Department of Agriculture for Scotland does deal with agriculture and the Scottish Education Department with education. Later chapters will try to show what lies behind the title of the Scottish Home Department. The Department of Health is somewhere between these two extremes; through it the Secretary of State exercises his general responsibility for the health of the Scottish people, and in particular for the working of the National Health Service in Scotland. All the Health Service hospitals and the general planning of hospital and specialist services became the concern of one or other of the Regional Hospital Boards, and the Boards drew up for the Secretary of State’s approval schemes for devolving to the Hospital Boards of Management the day-to-day running of the hospitals. The Department has to see that they are properly coordinated and that they work in smoothly with the hospital service and the local authority services.
