Some surgery has had to be cancelled

Dr Bob Masterton, the trust's deputy medical director, said: "There have been a number of operations cancelled as a result of pressure on beds because of a record level of delayed discharge patients.

"We regret this but there is a solution being sought between social work services and health services, but that is likely to be for the future."

Dr Masterton said more than 200 patients at the trust's hospitals were subject to delayed discharge last week.

The problem of bed blocking occurs when doctors are unable to discharge patients because of problems in arranging post-hospital care.

For example, this could involve elderly people waiting for a care assessment or a place in a nursing home.

Routine surgery

Dr Masterton also responded to allegations by a leading surgeon that surgical and emergency services in the city were "in crisis".

Steve Nixon, a consultant general surgeon at the Western General, said beds were routinely filled with emergency cases, leading to routine surgery being cancelled.

Mr Nixon said: "On my list, for example, people who used to wait seven weeks for surgery like gall stones and hernias now wait 52 weeks.

"That is not atypical. The more you delay treatment for people the more you are exposing them to the risk of developing complications and converting a routine condition into a life-threatening condition."

Dr Masterton said he was "not aware" of any patients whose lives had been put at risk because their surgery had been postponed.

Margo Macdonald: Critical of trust

He said Mr Nixon was correct to say that waiting times at the hospitals were going up, but insisted that steps were being taken to address the situation.

"We are continuing to meet the national standards for waiting numbers and waiting times, though we recognise our ability to do so is under pressure and we are experiencing an increase in the length of time that some patients are waiting," he said.

Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald, of the Scottish National Party, said: "Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust, perhaps understandably so as not to alarm patients and further harm staff morale, continue to deny these pressures on the hospital services in Lothian.

"This head in the sand attitude helps no one."

Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon MSP called for greater use of the private health sector.