Scottish Labour has accused ministers of taking a "sticking plaster approach" to the NHS after highlighting figures that suggest 15 operations per day are cancelled due to lack of resources.

The statistics showed that over a six month period from May to October, 2779 operations were cancelled by hospitals for "capacity or non-clinical reasons".

Over the same period, a total of 16,403 scheduled operations were cancelled, nearly 7000 of them at the request of patients and more than 5000 by doctors for clinical reasons.

Nearly 180,000 operations were carried out over the period.

Scottish Labour public services spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "Our NHS is our most valued public service and it needs to have the resources to deliver the care Scots need.

"These figures are absolutely shocking, and point to an NHS not getting the support it needs from the SNP Government in Edinburgh.

"Earlier this month only a third of NHS staff believed they had the resources and staff to do their jobs properly.

"Fifteen cancelled operations per day due to a lack of capacity show the reality of those concerns."

She added: "After nearly a decade in government and a majority in parliament there are no excuses for the SNP on our NHS.

"It's time we moved away from short term crisis management in our NHS to investing for the long term, building a health service fit for the challenges of the 2040s, not the 1940s."

The 2015 NHS staff survey, published earlier this month, showed that only a third of NHS staff thought they had the resources and staff to do their jobs properly.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "A very small number of operations planned in Scotland are cancelled for non-clinical reasons.

"From May to October this year it equated to 1.5 per cent of all planned procedures.

"Health boards work to ensure disruption to patients is always kept to an absolute minimum, and any postponed procedures will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity.

"We are clear with boards that operations for patients with the highest clinical need should not be cancelled."