Dozens of charities and community groups have backed an appeal urging the Scottish Government to step in to prevent cuts to the numbers of community links workers in Glasgow.
The plea by organisations including Glasgow South East Foodbank, The Men's Sheds, and the Senior Centre in Castlemilk warned that the plans will push the city's most vulnerable residents "further into poverty".
Community links practitioners (CLPs) are based in the the city's Deep End GP practices - located in areas of the highest deprivation - where they can provide one-to-one support for patients struggling with non-medical problems which impact on physical and mental health, including debt, food and fuel poverty, domestic abuse, loneliness, and problems with housing or benefits.
READ MORE: Community links cuts 'catastrophic' for patients in poorest areas
However, bosses at Glasgow's health and social care partnership - who employ the CLPs - say that they will be forced to reduce the number of full-time posts from 70 to 42 as of April next year, due to changes in Scottish Government funding.
It means that the remaining CLPs would find themselves spread across two or three different surgeries on a part-time basis, instead of being based full-time in a single practice, leading to fears that workloads will become unmanageable and patients will struggle to get help.
In a letter organised by the trade union GMB Scotland, campaigners called on First Minister Humza Yousaf - who is also the MSP for Glasgow Pollok - to "urgently intervene by providing the funding required to protect their posts and vital services".
It added: "Without CLPs, people who experience some of the worst social, economic and health issues will lose a vital resource to tackle them. This will only deepen the inequalities they face and push more people further into poverty.
"Given the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and years of the pandemic, we cannot take a step backwards in the provision of services that support our most impoverished communities."
READ MORE: Community links worker, health spending and the 'inverse care' law
The letter has been signed by 36 different charities and community groups, including foodbanks, housing associations, churches, and organisations which help people with problems ranging from poor mental health to legal problems.
In the last year alone in Glasgow, 12,797 new referrals were made to CLPs, 43,847 appointments were held, and a total of 15,657 individuals were given support.
The letter cautioned that the work of the CLPs "cannot be easily replaced" and the communities they serve will be "severely diminished".
GPs in the city have warned that the cuts would be "catastrophic" for vulnerable patients and a vote by Glasgow city council in September backed an amendment calling on the Scottish Government to secure long-term funding for the Community Links programme and, as a priority, sign-off on the cash needed to maintain current staffing levels.
CLPs are currently employed on rolling annual contracts.
Glasgow HSCP has said the cuts are unavoidable because it has been given no guarantee by the Scottish Government that a £1.35 million payment currently used to fund the programme will continue in 2024/25.
The Scottish Government is understood to consider this temporary "top up" cash and expects the HSCP to use existing budgets from its Primary Care Investment Fund.
Meanwhile, a petition lodged at the Scottish Parliament criticising the "short term, insecure and unstable" funding for CLPs has already racked up over 1,500 signatures.
The "stop the cuts" petition was lodged on October 9 by Dr Peter Cawston on behalf of the 'Scottish GPs at the Deep End' group.
READ MORE: 'Car crash' GP crisis as quarter planning to quit practices
It calls on MSPs to put pressure the Scottish Government to prevent the CLP cuts and to "take binding steps to secure long-term funding for community link workers in GP practices across Scotland".
It added: "The gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest in Scotland has never been wider. We believe cuts in [community link worker] numbers during a cost-of-living crisis will only widen these health inequalities."
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said it was up to local integration authorities to decide how best to manage their resources, but that it expects services to "continue to provide the necessary support needed".
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