Negotiations are being hammered out behind closed doors and lawyers have been called in to decide what, if anything, can be revealed publicly.

The Evening Telegraph has previously reported plans to set up a regional treatment centre at Stracathro that will take patients from all over Tayside, Fife and Grampian. Scottish Health Minister Andy Kerr offered NHS Tayside £15 million for the project, on condition a private company was brought in.

NHS Tayside has already identified their “preferred bidder” as Amicus Healthcare, a subsidiary of the international healthcare group that recently bought Fernbrae Private Hospital in Dundee.

Mr Macdonald wants to know if the negotiations have been finalised and if the rates the company will be paid for carrying out surgery at Stracathro will be the same as the NHS rate for the same job.

“I hope Andy Kerr will not be obliged to explain, as John Reid had to in September 2003 when he was UK Health Secretary, that the reason why private healthcare providers were going to be paid more had to do with market forces to cover start-up costs,” said Mr Macdonald.

Today, NHS Tayside’s chief operating officer Gerry Marr, said the contract with Amicus was still under negotiation. He expected it to be signed within three weeks.

Mr Marr said the health authority wanted to be open but was currently taking advice from lawyers about what could be placed in the public domain after the contract was signed.

“I cannot reveal the contract values and actual money involved,” he said. “We are in negotiations and have not signed the contract.

“We wish to be as transparent around Stracathro as is possible and it is not in our interests to say nothing can be disclosed.

“We are actually saying to our lawyers ‘Once the contract is signed, what can be made available in the public domain so there is a degree of transparency’.”

He said the process by which the health authority intends to ensure “value for money” under the contract had satisfied the organisation’s internal and external auditors.