The pilot programme will seek out those most at risk of ill health and offer them access to services in a bid to prevent them developing serious illnesses.

It will test what is most effective at improving the health of people in poor areas before extending these measures to the NHS as a whole.

CHPs in each NHS board area will take part in the scheme, called Prevention 2010.

The first schemes are expected to be up and running next year, with more to follow in 2007.

Mr Kerr, speaking at the Health Scotland Convention in Glasgow, also pledged support for the obesity management programme, Counterweight.

Up to £1.2 is being made available to support Counterweight, a programme targeting patients with high body-mass indexes. It will begin in the five CHPs taking part in the Prevention 2010 pilots before being rolled out across Scotland.

Mr Kerr said, “We need to shift the focus of the NHS from illness to well-being, from treating ill health to preventing it. Only by doing this can we tackle the deep roots of health inequality in Scotland.

“These pilots will put the anticipatory care approach we want to see into practice in some of our most deprived communities.

“Concerted action is needed to change Scotland’s culture of ill health. We are making the right changes to ensure the NHS can meet this challenge.”

Dr Drew Walker, NHS Tayside’s director of public health, said the scheme would benefit those living in the poorest areas of Tayside.

“Preventing ill health certainly isn’t a new idea, it is something the NHS is already heavily involved in. But this new initiative is about increasing the efforts made by the NHS to prevent ill health and is targeting those efforts at those in greatest need — the people in the most deprived areas of Tayside,” he said.

Dr Walker said although it was too early to say exactly what the pilot programmes would do, he expected they would be tailored to suit the needs of each health board.