Health Secretary Shona Robison has demanded the new Scottish Labour leader apologise, claiming he was "caught red-handed fiddling NHS figures" on the number of cancelled operations.
Jim Murphy had attacked the Scottish Government for not making public the number of surgeries that had been postponed, claiming the rate of cancellations in the Glasgow area is significantly higher than south of the border.
But Ms Robison said the Labour MP had "vastly inflated" the number of procedures that had been cancelled by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and had deleted posts on social media after realising he had been "exposed".
The Health Secretary said: "Jim Murphy has been caught red-handed fiddling the NHS figures - and he must withdraw these outrageous claims and issue an immediate and unequivocal apology to NHS staff and patients.
"It is simply inexcusable for Jim Murphy to have vastly inflated the number of operations cancelled in Glasgow."
Labour said data it had obtained using Freedom of Information legislation had revealed 292 operations were cancelled in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area in two weeks between October 19 and November 3 last year.
The party added this was the equivalent of 1.5 procedures per 100,000 people in the area, and compared to 19,471 cancelled operations in England between October 1 and December 31 last year - the equivalent of 0.39 per 100,000 people.
Mr Murphy stated: ''The SNP A&E crisis is seeing operations cancelled across the country but Scots aren't getting the true picture because the SNP Government in Edinburgh refuses to publish the information."
But the SNP insisted the figures from England only included surgeries which were postponed for non-clinical reasons - such as a shortage of beds, lack of staff or emergencies cases taking priority - while the total from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde covered all cancelled operations.
More than 200 of the procedures that were delayed in Glasgow health board area were cancelled for medical reasons, nationalists added.
Ms Robison said this information had been provided in response to Labour's question but the party had withheld this so Mr Murphy "could make these false claims".
The Health Secretary added: "The fact that Mr Murphy has deleted the Tweet and Youtube video shows that he knows he has been exposed.
"He must now return to the Glasgow Royal and post a similar video - this time apologising to staff and patients.
"There are undoubtedly pressures in our NHS - but the last thing staff and indeed patients need is to have politicians touring the country whipping up panic with false claims such as these.
"With behaviour such as this, it is little wonder that Scots overwhelmingly trust the SNP over Labour to act in the NHS' best interests."
A Labour spokesman said: "The real issue here is about transparency.
"The SNP Government do not publish clear data on cancelled operations. That information is freely available in England.
"This means that people have to use Freedom of Information to find out about the state of their NHS.
"Even the British Medical Association has been forced to use freedom of information recently to get information on the NHS. This is simply not acceptable.
"The SNP need to come clean about the state of our NHS and publish all relevant data now - and that includes the number of cancelled operations. "
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