WINCHESTER’S elderly population is being put at risk, warns Liberal Democrat candidate Paula Ferguson because of proposed cuts in adult social care and public health.

The proposals, including a 13 per cent reduction in falls prevention, have been made by the Conservative county councillors as part of their detailed Transformation to 2021 plans.

Ms Ferguson said: “These Conservative proposals demonstrate that the 'end of austerity' is smoke and mirrors. These further cuts are a risk to public health that will place greater pressure on the NHS.

“As a health minister, our local MP has been at the heart of a government that has presided over a decade of mismanagement and ill conceived cuts. These plans reveal that this process is continuing by stealth and that electioneering promises of more money for our NHS and public services are a sham.”

The Winchester and Chandler’s Ford candidate argues that hospitals already under unsustainable pressure from an ageing population will be further threatened from cuts totalling £43.1 m.

“This week I was privileged to join a local ambulance crew for a shift. Already an incredibly high proportion of their call outs are to assist elderly people hurt by trips and falls. Like our hospitals, our ambulance services are doing heroic work despite ever-tightening budgets.

"To take away public health and adult social care measures that keep people out of hospital in the first place shows how the Conservatives’ stealth austerity plans will continue to hurt the most vulnerable in society.”