NHS Fife has recruited 14 new consultants as it battles to quell a staffing crisis.
The doctors are due to take up posts with the beleaguered health authority in the new year as bosses work to fill vacant posts.
A total of 70 new nurses have also been taken on, with work continuing to enlist a further 30.
However, health chiefs have warned that despite the success of a recent recruitment campaign, challenges remain, with 22 consultant posts still unfilled.
There are particular problems nationally in the recruitment of consultants in emergency medicine, anaesthetics, care of the elderly and paediatrics.
The board’s head of human resources, Rona King, said the employment of 14 specialists was significant and hailed it as a huge improvement on the summer, when there were 40 vacant posts.
The crisis led to increased waiting times for patients in need of diagnostic tests and other treatment and led to criticism of NHS Fife’s performance.
Ms King said: “We have 14 new consultant appointments who will be joining us from January.
“That takes us down to net vacancies of 21.95, but adverts for key specialities will appear in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) in January.”
Ms King made it clear a number of vacancies had become difficult to fill across the whole of the UK.
“We have 14 new starts in the new year. That’s a great success story for Fife,” she said.
“You won’t see that replicated in other areas of Scotland.”
She added, however: “That doesn’t mean we should become complacent, but we are doing better than some other areas.
“There is a national advert going out for Scotland as well in the new year.”
Medical director, Dr Brian Montgomery, said the board had also looked at “imaginative solutions”.
“We’re looking at shared and joint appointments with other boards,” he said. “We don’t want to be in competition with one another.”
“The reality is there are areas where there are shortages and that includes general practice. We are still going to have some challenges over the next little while.”
In July, the Scottish Government was asked to intervene in NHS Fife’s staffing crisis.