Shona Robison insisted she has the backing of Nicola Sturgeon as the First Minister faced calls to sack her under-fire health secretary.
Scottish Labour accused Ms Robison of being “out of her depth and out of ideas” as they demanded her head after NHS targets were missed again.
In an exclusive interview with The Courier, the Dundee East MSP denied she was vulnerable in a cabinet reshuffle, which is widely tipped to happen when Holyrood returns next week.
Official figures published yesterday showed patients are still waiting too long for treatment, breaching several of the Scottish Government’s own targets.
Ms Robison said the SNP leader “absolutely” has confidence in her
abilities as health secretary, adding she will “absolutely not” step down of her own accord.
Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said the health service is gripped by a “workforce crisis” of the SNP’s making that is forcing patients into lengthy waits.
He added: “It is time for Shona Robison to go.”
Ms Robison accused Mr Sarwar of “indulging in personal attacks” because Labour is “bereft of any policy ideas”.
“I will leave them to their personal attacks and meanwhile I’ll focus on getting on with the job of transforming our health and care system,” she added.
The Scottish Government figures show that in June the 18-week referral to treatment target was met for 84.8% of patients, down from 87% in the same month last year.
The standard demands that 90% are seen within that period.
NHS Fife hit a record low since the target was introduced in 2011, with just 84.4% seen in time.
The Tayside board, which covers Ms Robison’s constituency, has shown improvement on the measure in recent months, but has not achieved the target since December 2014.
The target was also missed in the 12-week treatment time guarantee, while waits soared for key diagnostic tests.
Ms Robison responded to the figures by launching an expert group to find ways of cutting waiting times.
She added an extra £50 million is being given to health boards to improve waiting time performance.
100 admin jobs set to go at Tayside – but overall workforce to expand
One hundred administration jobs at NHS Tayside are to be chopped, according to official projections.
The backroom operation cut – equivalent to 100.5 full-time posts – is part of the health board’s bid to plug a huge hole in its budget.
Meanwhile, the Health Secretary Shona Robison has given her clearest indication yet that Tayside could have some of its debts written off by ministers.
Tayside bosses say the reduction in its administration workforce should be achieved by April next year through natural turnover, in line with NHS Scotland’s policy of not forcing redundancy on anyone.
Overall, the number of staff at Tayside is to increase by 1.6%, with an extra 271 nurse and midwife posts.
George Doherty, director of human resources and organisational development at NHS Tayside, said: “It is important that we prioritise our spending on front line services to continue to provide high quality care to our patients.”
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland said the projected increase of 1,414 whole time equivalent nursing and midwifery staff across the country falls short.
Associate director Norman Provan said: “While most health boards are predicting a small increase in the number of nursing and midwifery staff over the coming year, it is clear this will not be enough to keep pace with increases in demand.”
Audit Scotland has estimated that NHS Tayside will have to make savings of £175m over the next five years.
Ms Robison said talks are ongoing about what to do about the £33m owed to the Scottish Government by NHS Tayside through brokerage.
Asked by The Courier about the possibility of writing off those crisis loan repayments, she said: “We will continue to have those discussions and we want to be as helpful to Tayside as we can be.”
But she warned: “Any arrangement that is made with NHS Tayside going forward will have to make sure that it doesn’t set any precedents for any other boards.”
