Concerns have been raised that some North East Fife patients are waiting for treatment from NHS Tayside for longer than the 12-week guarantee.
Fife Liberal Democrats revealed 89 of the 1,025 people who waited more than 12 weeks for in-patient treatment live in North East Fife.
Councillor Tim Brett said it was concerning that so many were not being seen within that time at the Dundee-based health board.
“The recently appointed chief executive Grant Archibald has told me they are working on addressing these problems so they are able to meet demand and see patients in the promised timescale,” he said.
“I look forward to hearing how progress is made so we can see some improvement.”
Local MSP Willie Rennie added it was clear from the figures that NHS Tayside is struggling to keep up with the demand of treating patients from Fife.
He said: “It must be really disheartening to be told to expect your treatment within 12 weeks only for that time to come and go and you’ve not been seen.
“Near to 100 of these patients are from North East Fife so it does suggest changes to healthcare models where referrals to Tayside are increased shouldn’t be considered until the capacity issues are addressed and patients are being treated with the waiting times promised to them.”
A joint meeting of senior representatives of both Tayside and Fife health boards is being arranged to discuss this issue in detail and to ensure there is clarity regarding the operational arrangements and patient pathways.
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said: “NHS Tayside aims to meet national waiting times standards, however, it is unfortunately not currently possible to meet the targets across all patient pathways.
“This is a position reflected across Scotland.”
She added that in Tayside there are a number of contributing factors, including a national shortage of consultants in some specialities and nursing vacancies.
“We have been working hard to recruit to these positions.
“Waiting times are reviewed on a regular basis across all services with a focus on identifying opportunities to maintain and improve performance wherever this is possible.
“Our three-year Transforming Tayside programme aims to drive reform which can meet the increasing demands expected on our system and our focus is on transforming services and driving up performance in key areas such as waiting times.”
