A CHARITY that helps drug addicts has called for a wholesale review of drug and alcohol services after the Scottish Government cut direct funding for rehabilitation and treatment by £15 million.

Health Secretary Shona Robison has insisted that services will be protected because health boards will make up the missing sum from their own funds, but there is widespread anxiety that the cut will lead to the closure of services, and even a higher risk of deaths.

Andrew Horne, director of Addaction Scotland, the largest provider of services to people with substance misuse problems north of the Border, said it was by no means clear that health boards would top up the missing £15 million.

Ms Robison wrote to drug and alcohol partnerships last month warning that combined drug and alcohol funding would drop from

£69.2 million in the current financial year to £53.8 million in 2016-17, but claimed an uplift in NHS funding of 6.7 per cent would allow boards to keep services open.

Mr Horne said: "Addaction Scotland is dismayed by the cuts to drug and alcohol services proposed by the Scottish Government. Drug-related deaths in Scotland have risen 72 per cent over the past 10 years and are now at the highest level ever recorded, while problem drug and alcohol use affects every part of our communities."

Mr Horne added: "We are deeply concerned about the impact of these cuts. Across Scotland, services are already over-stretched. Now – more than ever – we need a considered review of the health and social care system to provide more comprehensive and co-ordinated pathways for our most vulnerable citizens .

"These short-sighted cuts will lead to increased costs elsewhere and – more importantly – will have severe, negative effects on the lives of the Scottish people, their children and families, and our local communities. We would strongly urge the Scottish Government to reconsider.”

At a meeting with government officials yesterday, leaders of Scotland's Area Drugs Partnerships expressed their own doubts about the cuts and asked for ministers to provide health boards with clarification about how the shortfall in funding is to be met.

An insider said: "There is not enough money in the system, but these are critical services for people and need to be funded properly".