If anyone thinks the Scottish public health white paper, published last week, is a bad idea, they are certainly not saying so.
With medical, nursing and most of the interest group lobby on their side, the worst criticism Scottish Office ministers have had to face is that they are electioneering at the taxpayer's expense.
The document, Towards a Healthier Scotland, offers few surprises. But it does go considerably beyond the green paper on which it is based in setting firm targets - albeit ones that are more than a decade down the road (see box).
Delivering them will be the work not of Scottish secretary Donald Dewar and the six-strong ministerial team who signed the white paper, but of Scotland's parliament, elections for which take place in May.
The parliament will also inherit plans for four new demonstration projects, for which Mr Dewar promised£15m, and the results of a vigorous round of public consultation over plans to fluoridate water and, in some areas, milk.
Launching the proposals, Scottish health minister Sam Galbraith said he was 'sick and tired of Scots always being labelled the sick man of Europe'. But good national health needed 'a truly national commitment'.
And he announced that - in response to consultation on the green paper - a third priority would be added to those proposed last year.
'The big killers of cancer and coronary heart disease are clear priorities, but so is the next generation of young Scots,' he said. 'Better health is for life, but better health must start early.'
The white paper calls for 'a sustained attack on inequality, social exclusion and poverty', and says that 'tackling inequalities has such importance that it should be regarded as an overarching aim'.
It cites government initiatives on social inclusion partnerships, the New Deal and its soon-to-be-published social inclusion strategy as part of the drive to end social exclusion and improve health. It points out that, 'next to smoking, our diet is the single most significant cause of our poor health'.
The identification of child health in the white paper is already reflected in NHS Priorities and Planning Guidance. It will also form the basis of a Starting Well demonstration project focusing on pregnancy and the first five years of life.
In tackling dental health - where the poorest 10 per cent of children suffer 50 per cent of tooth decay - health boards are told to gauge support for water fluoridation.
Water authorities, it says, 'will be advised that, where local views firmly favour fluoridation, they should focus, thereafter, on issues of technical feasibility'.
There will be further demonstration projects on sexual health, coronary heart disease and cancer. Mental health will be 'a leading priority for the NHS in Scotland' and form part of Starting Well.
The government also plans to set up a public health strategy group led by the health minister 'to ensure the integration of policies and initiatives with health implications', and there will be a review of nurses' contribution to public health.
The British Medical Association in Scotland has thrown its weight behind the white paper. It wants to see a 'powerful minister for public health' in the Scottish parliament.
It is also backed by the Scottish Association of Health Councils. Director Patricia Dawson especially welcomes the review of health visitors, school nurses and practice nurses.
And it has the support of the public health lobby. Helen Tyrrell, secretary of Public Health Alliance Scotland, says she is pleased at 'the commitment to tackling poverty as the root cause of illness in Scotland'.
Ms Tyrrell says she would have liked to see targets for reducing inequalities within the targets for cutting deaths from heart disease and cancer.
On the political front, the Scottish Liberal Democrats complain that the document is 'long on rhetoric, short on actual cash', while the Scottish National Party is 'disappointed' there is to be no public health minister.
David McLetchie, leader of Scotland's Conservatives, told The Scotsman that the Labour Party was promoting its policies at public expense and attempting to 'set an agenda for a new parliament they might not even control'.
Towards a Healthier Scotland. Stationery Office.£6.
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