Topeka ? Partners Kansas University and KU Hospital — at odds over a planned affiliation with a Missouri hospital — also disagreed Wednesday on whether progress was being made in resolving the dispute.

On Tuesday evening, Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center, issued a statement, saying “substantial agreement was achieved on a number of issues” during negotiations.

But Irene Cumming, chief executive officer of KU Hospital, on Wednesday responded with a statement that said “we have significant unresolved issues.”

The dispute centers on an effort by the KU School of Medicine to enter an affiliation with St. Luke’s Hospital, a Kansas City, Mo. hospital that competes with KU Hospital.

KU says the affiliation is needed to advance life sciences in the region, win a national cancer center designation, and lure private philanthropy research dollars in Missouri.

KU Hospital says the proposal will harm it and Kansas’ ability to train and recruit doctors.

The issue has spilled into the Legislature where committees are holding meetings on the proposed affiliation.

Atkinson said KU and the hospital reached accord on several issues, including future financial investments in the School of Medicine, the number of residents at KU Hospital and “defining the future alignment between the physicians and the KU Hospital and the KU School of Medicine.”

But Cumming said issues of whether KU Hospital will play a lead role in efforts to get national cancer center designation, and the way in which St. Luke’s will use the KU brand remain up in the air.

“More troubling to the hospital are areas where we seem as far or farther apart than ever,” she said.