Nicola Sturgeon under pressure over NHS patients treated privately The board presided over a waiting times scandal whereby patients were removed from lists if they refused to attend appointments in England at short notice. Willie Rennie, the Scottish Liberal Democrat, highlighted a claim by Mr Salmond on the BBC's Question Time in April that the SNP had "eradicated the private sector from the National Health Service." These bold claims seem to be nothing more than hogwash. We need an urgent statement from the Health Secretary on the extent of the private sector involvement in the NHS," he said. Prof Barbour retired just before an independent review into the board's management culture found managers bullied staff as they strove to meet SNP treatment targets. The health board said yesterday he handed the contract to HD Partners "using his delegated powers at the time," but this had ended and the health board has no further contact with the company. Labour also highlighted official figures showing the number of NHS-employed staff has decreased by 2,154 over the past year, including a fall of 743 in the number of nurses. Meanwhile, the number of patients waiting longer than the 18-week target has increased from 117 to 880 after the Lothian patients wrongfully removed were restored to the official list. Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour health spokesman, said: "One of Scotland's biggest health boards appears to be lurching from crisis to crisis and the Health Secretary appears to have lost control of NHS Lothian. The huge spike in waiting list times is of great concern, and we are beginning to see the real picture since management at NHS Lothian were caught fiddling their figures. A Scottish Executive spokesman said Miss Sturgeon "has instructed NHS Lothian to seek advice from NHS National Services Scotland to provide assurance around the circumstances of this work." When the Daily Telegraph called the telephone number listed on HD's website for its UK office in London, we received a recorded message but no option to speak to anyone.