NHS Fife receives £12 million less than it should, according to the Scottish Conservatives.
The party claimed the funding anomaly was down to a controversial funding mechanism used by the Scottish Government.
On a visit to Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline, party representatives said a report had revealed the health board was left with the cash black hole because of the SNP’s favoured NHS Resource Allocation Committee approach.
They said that the system placed more emphasis on an area’s deprivation and poverty levels, rather than the population size, leaving Fife with the multi-million-pound shortfall.
An Audit Scotland report confirmed this week that NHS Fife was one of the worst affected boards in Scotland, leaving it with a £12m deficit last year.
The Scottish Conservative candidate for the Dunfermline by-election, James Reekie, has urged the SNP to restore parity with other health boards, adding it would result in a better quality of patient care across the country.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman and deputy leader Jackson Carlaw has added his support for Fife to get a “fairer deal” in terms of NHS funding.
NHS Fife received £616.9m last year, a figure which, the party said, should have been £628.9m if the NRAC formula was replaced by a more balanced model.
Mr Reekie said: “What is basically happening here is that Fife is being short-changed to the tune of £12m a year because it has less deprivation than other health boards.
“That is completely unfair, and needs to be addressed at once.
“The Scottish Government has paid no heed to the fact the population is growing and, with accident and emergency services already having been centralised in Kirkcaldy, the people of this area have suffered enough.
“I want to see this disparity ended by next year, so patients across Fife can benefit from the same level of investment as those elsewhere in Scotland.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Under the current Scottish Government funding to NHS Fife has increased by over 20%.
“In the coming year, the NHS Fife budget will be increasing by almost £18.7m, which is an above-inflation increase. This has been achieved in the face of cuts by the UK Government to Scotland’s budget.”