MILLIONS of pounds are being stripped from health care services as part of an unprecedented overhaul that will heap pressure on hospitals, drive up bed-blocking and disrupt routine treatment and operations, the leading nursing body has claimed.

Around £5.4 million is set to be cut from Glasgow's health and social care budget with specific "savings" to be achieved from services that help the elderly, people with learning disabilities, alcohol or drugs dependency and mental health problems.

Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, described plans to slash £450,000 from community-based care for older people as "unbelievable" and said the move would undermine flagship government plans to treat more patients outwith hospitals.

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It comes as NHS and local council care services are merged into Integrated Joint Boards, or IJBs - a new care system designed to ensure people can receive more treatment at home rather than hospital.

The IJBs will have shared responsibility for many things, including preventing the frail elderly from falling at home and ensuring, should they need a spell in hospital, their discharge is not delayed.

But the prospect of cuts totalling millions of pounds threatens to derail the plan, the RCN has claimed.

Ms Fyffe said: “The public need to know that if we don’t stop this, will have long delays before you can get in for planned admissions.

"I can't get over that we would take this gamble at a time when beds at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital are under unprecedented pressure."

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The IJB report for Glasgow, set to be approved next week, insists that the savings will be achieved by not replacing staff who retire or move on.

It argues that community health care can be delivered more efficiently by bringing together social work, district nursing, older people's mental health and a range of nursing services into integrated "hubs".

However, Ms Fyffe said district nurses would bear the brunt of this "natural wastage" which would weaken the community care plans

She said: "People need to know they will get care in their homes which is as good as they would have got in hospital. Whether that means antibiotics, oxygen at home, or pain relief.

"If you don't have appropriate levels of district nursing you will not be able to make space for people and their families who need planned hospital admissions.

“It is unbelievable that they don’t recognise the consequence of this policy and we are deeply disappointed that we have moved forward with something so lacking in transparency."

With other IJBs also facing huge savings - Argyll and Bute reportedly needs to save £22m over two years, Aberdeen has tabled £4.8m of cuts and Fife faces a £20m health and social care funding gap - many have yet to clarify where the cuts will fall.

Ms Fyffe added: "Our fear is that, where one IJB goes, others may follow, given the financial pressures they are facing.

"Any service redesign must surely be based on assessing the health and social care needs of local people and making changes based on need, not on saving money.”

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The IJB board is also being asked to cut £250,000 from sexual health services, £155,000 from adult community learning disability services, £350,000 from alcohol and drugs services, and - in one of the most significant savings - more than £3 million from adult mental health services.

David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum said if addiction services are forced to be "reactive" it will only "add to demands on hospitals".

Billy Watson, chief executive of the Scottish Association for Mental Health said mental health services were facing a disproportionate level of cuts to other health services.

A spokesman for Glasgow City IJB said: "We are working through a well-established planning process to develop and improve services while living within the resources available. Like all public bodies, we continually look to be more efficient and make the best use of taxpayers’ money.

"To do this, a programme of internal reviews has been undertaken to identify further opportunities to deliver patient services in a more cost effective way. This will allow us to both reduce existing costs as well as target tailored resources more effectively."