TWO top NHS executives have been suspended amid a probe by watchdogs into discrepancies over waiting-time figures.
The pair, from NHS Tayside, were asked to leave the board's headquarters at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee after preliminary findings by Audit Scotland were reported to management.
In a separate case, Grampian Health Board patients were allegedly phoned repeatedly at home during the day when they were unlikely to be in to fix appointments, with no messages left.
If patients cannot be contacted it does not count as a technical breach of the waiting-time target of patients being treated within 18 weeks of referral.
Earlier this year, NHS Lothian was exposed as offering patients appointments in England that were impossible to keep, to avoid breaches of targets.
It prompted the resignation of NHS Lothian's chief executive and prompted the Audit Scotland inquiry.
Labour said the latest revelations showed "waiting list fiddling was never simply confined to NHS Lothian".
Health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie MSP said: "The claims that both NHS Tayside and Grampian have seen waiting list manipulation confirms what we've always feared.
"With the waiting-list system, what incentive is there for a health board to get a patient who has exceeded the waiting time treated?
"With more patients coming onto the lists, the demand is to treat them within the time limits, not to minimise the wait for those already in breach.
"The warnings of falling care standards as a result of cuts need to be taken seriously too."
In recent weeks Audit Scotland has been searching through the health board's records and uncovered anomalies linked to the management and recording of waiting times.
Patients referred by their GPs for hospital treatment should be seen within three months and treated within 18 weeks.
One of the concerns expressed to Grampian's chief executive, Richard Carey, was that patients were offered treatment outside the health board area, causing "potential inconvenience for the individual".
Grampian Health Board confirmed surgeons did meet with its chief executive over waiting-times concerns but dismissed allegations that patients were dropped from lists to meet targets.
It also said that if it called patients and they were unavailable it did not leave messages for confidentiality reasons.
An NHS Tayside spokeswoman said: "We will not comment on internal matters relating to individual members of staff.
"NHS Tayside, along with every other health board in Scotland, is currently working closely with internal auditors who are reviewing waiting times practices and processes.
"This specific audit is looking at the management and recording of patient waiting-times data in relation to hospital appointments.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We have instructed an extensive audit of NHS Scotland on recording waiting time practices which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
"The Scottish Government has not yet received the results of this audit, but when we do we expect to see that each individual board has met their targets."
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