Scotland's health trusts are to receive a one-off funding package aimed at wiping out their debts when the Holyrood administration redistributes a budget under-spend of more than £700m.

The Scottish executive has given the go-ahead for the health minister, Susan Deacon, to put around £90m into a "fresh start" scheme for the country's health managers.

Nearly £70m will be shared between the country's health boards, with an extra £11m used to clear Tayside acute trust's deficit.

In addition, the boards will get a further £11m to help them prepare for this year's winter pressures.

The move is designed to represent a break with the past, as Scotland introduces a slimmed-down NHS bureaucracy, with 15 unified boards overseeing health care.

Ms Deacon said: "Over the last two decades, the NHS was damaged by the wasteful and divisive internal market. Staff were demoralised. Millions of pounds were wasted. The public's relationship with its most cherished public service was damaged.

"We are now sweeping away the last vestiges of that ill-fated experiment and introducing a leaner, more accountable service."

The executive allows departments to automatically keep 75% of any under-spend in their previous year's budget. The departments can then bid for extra money based on their spending plans.

But, finance minister Angus McKay admonished his colleagues for not making quick use of Holyrood's rising levels of funding. He said: "The executive is not making use of the considerable growth in the Scottish budget as quickly as it could. I have, therefore, taken a much more rigorous approach to examining departmental under-spends."

Mr McKay said he would be implementing new procedures to check up on possible delays in spending and calling on colleagues to tackle any potential problems.

Ms Deacon's department is one of the big winners in the redistribution of under-spent Holyrood budgets.

The health minister has been allocated nearly £160m in the process - a figure that includes the health department's total £144m under-spend. Scotland's education department gains too, with a similar allocation of nearly £102m.

Some of the biggest cuts are to be in local government borrowing consents, which loses more than half of its under-spend.