A new phone line for patients seeking advice on hospital waiting times will be introduced, it was announced today.

The line will be piloted from this summer for 12 months and will be run by health information service NHS Inform, which is part of NHS 24.

Alex Neil, health secretary announced the initiative as he made a statement at Holyrood on a waiting times report by Audit Scotland, that found some patients had been placed on 'hidden' lists.

Mr Neil said: "We want to make sure that patients know what they are entitled to, what they can expect and what options are available to them."

The announcement came after First Minister Alex Salmond was forced to defend his former health secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, against Labour accusations that the SNP had misled patients over hospital waiting times.

Labour said the Audit Scotland report showed almost one in four people had to wait more than nine weeks for an inpatient appointment, compared to the 3% the Scottish Government had claimed.

In heated exchanges at Holyrood, the First Minister said the NHS "isn't without failings, isn't without faults, but is an outstanding health service of which every one of us should be proud".

The Audit Scotland report revealed hundreds of patients at two Glasgow hospitals were listed as unavailable for treatment.

An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokeswoman said: "A number of patients turned down offers of treatment in favour of waiting for a specific clinician or because they wanted to have their procedure in a specific hospital.

"They were coded as 'socially unavailable'."