NHS waiting times returned as a political issue yesterday when Liberal Democrats claimed a patient had been struck off and denied treatment in order to meet targets.

Nicol Stephen brandished a letter at First Minister's Questions in which a specialist consultant in Dundee told a patient she was being denied lyposuction treatment under orders from management in order to reduce waiting lists.

But last night the consultant involved, plastic surgeon Alex Munnoch, issued an "unreserved apology" for his assertion, stating: "I would like to make it clear that I have been under no pressure from managers in Tayside to alter waiting lists inappropriately."

However, there was still confusion over funding for this specialist treatment, with Gerry Marr, Chief Operating Officer of NHS Tayside's Single Delivery Unit, saying: "Irrespective of the circumstances of this situation, I recognise the distress that may have been caused to the small number of patients involved and I apologise for this. I will personally be making whatever arrangements are necessary for those patients to have this treatment here in Tayside.

"Mr Munnoch is the only surgeon in the UK who undertakes this highly specialised procedure and, although I will be making arrangements for those patients who Mr Munnoch has already promised treatment to, we are not in a position to accept any new referrals."

The LibDem leader had brandished the consultant's letter, which said: "I have been instructed by hospital management to remove your name from my waiting list. The prime reason for this decision relates to the 18-week target for patient treatment which is now in enforcement.

"I currently have a significant number of patients in breach of this and the simple solution by management is to reduce my waiting lists by removing patients' names."

Mr Stephen said: "This is a shocking and scandalous situation achieving the First Minister's targets by dumping patients off the list." He added: "Will he promise to end this manipulation of the figures and ensure that those patients who have been devastated by letters like this now receive treatment from his government?"

Mr Salmond said he and Ms Sturgeon would be delighted to look into the case and he said they would "deal with anything that affects that individual patient that might have been wrongly done".

Dr Alison McCallum, Director of Public Health and Health Policy, NHS Lothian, said: "As far as we are aware, funding has never been an issue here. NHS Tayside never asked for payment and we are delighted that they will now be providing the treatment."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "I have thoroughly investigated this case. The patient's removal from the waiting list was unrelated to waiting time targets and cannot be justified. NHS Tayside have accepted this. Removing patients from waiting lists is unacceptable."

She said she had written to the patient concerned to apologise and had written to all NHS boards reminding them that the action taken in this case was not acceptable.

She added: "Removing patients from waiting lists may have been acceptable before, but I have again made it clear to all boards that hidden waiting lists will not be tolerated by the new government."

But Mr Stephen said last night: "We now need a guarantee from the government that no other patients in Scotland have been treated in this disgraceful way."