Nicola Sturgeon: "Alarming"

Hospital chiefs said that although the operations at the Royal Infirmary were classified as urgent, none were emergencies and alternative appointments were being arranged.

Mary Scanlon, the Tory health spokeswoman, said the problems proved the health service will struggle to cope during the winter months, when demand for hospital beds is at its highest.

The MSP for the Highlands and Islands said: "Despite yesterday's encouraging news from Scottish Care, this is a time of year when bed-blocking should have been eased after the winter pressures. But this is more damning evidence of the crisis in the NHS."

SNP shadow health minister Nicola Sturgeon described the cancellations at Edinburgh Royal as "alarming" and urged Susan Deacon to invest more money in the community care sector so patients can receive better treatment when they leave hospital.

Allison Williams, general manager for medicine at the Lothian Universities Hospital Trust, which runs the hospital, said: "These were not emergency patients with life-threatening conditions.

Emergency admissions

"Generally speaking, they were patients who have had procedures in the past and required to come back for follow-up treatment. These patients have been temporarily postponed and will be operated on as quickly as possible."

Mrs Williams said the bed-blocking had been caused by a rise in the number of emergency admissions to the hospital coupled with delays in patients being discharged.

She said: "We've got a temporary problem which does happen from time to time. Summer is the busiest time for emergency admissions, but the pressure is reducing."

It also emerged that 10 non-urgent operations for orthopaedic patients at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh had to be cancelled because surgical beds were taken up by delayed discharge patients.

Mary Scanlon: "Crisis in the NHS"

The hospital is also part of the Lothian Universities Trust and Mrs Williams said: "Although the hospitals are on different sites, they do integrate their services and when there are pressures at one site, the other one works to find solutions.

"The pressure caused by emergency admissions and by some patients waiting to be discharged has impacted on the capacity at the Princess Margaret Rose, but it is beginning to clear."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive today described the Edinburgh Royal cancellations as "regrettable".

She added: "We have been assured that the trust are taking measures to tackle the problem and we hope the situation can be resolved as soon as possible."