I will be asking the Scottish Executive to provide details of previous cancelled operations in the Lothians and elsewhere in Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon SNP health spokeswoman

However, the revelations have been described as "extremely worrying" by Scottish National Party health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon.

She now plans to submit questions in parliament asking the whether the problem has occurred in other parts of Scotland.

"To cancel an operation only adds to the anxiety that patients are already experiencing," said Ms Sturgeon.

"I will therefore be lodging a number of Parliamentary Questions to get to the bottom of this whole unsatisfactory situation.

"I will be asking the Scottish Executive to provide details of previous cancelled operations in the Lothians and elsewhere in Scotland.

"I also intend to ask them to provide details of the reasons that operations have been cancelled."

Surgical trays

The party's Lothians MSP Fiona Hyslop said she would be taking up the issue with the local NHS trust to ensure it was not repeated.

Nine operations have been cancelled this week at St John's Hospital in Livingston, along with one at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital.

The HSDU is run by Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust, which supplies surgical trays to hospitals in the Lothians.

The trust's head, Dr Bob Masterton, denied that operations had been cancelled because of unclean instruments.

We've had extraordinarily high sickness levels but the staff have been brilliant

Dr Bob Masterton Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust

He said: "There were no dirty instruments, no problem with equipment, that's totally untrue.

"People don't appreciate how difficult these trays are to make up."

He said the "very complex procedure" was governed by European Union regulations.

"We've had extraordinarily high sickness levels but the staff have been brilliant," he added.

"They've come in from Falkirk, Glasgow and the Borders to help out. That's what the NHS does. It's splendid how our staff pull together.

"We regret any inconvenience caused to our patients."