GPs are at ‘breaking point’ due to cuts to smoking, addiction and sexual health services, campaigners have said.

New data shows Blackburn with Darwen council has slashed spending on key public health services in the five years from 2014/15 to 2018/19.

The council’s sexual health services has been cut by 14 per cent, drugs and alcohol by 18 per cent and smoking services by 33 per cent, according to research conducted by GP publication Pulse.

It has also cut its public health budget from £15,964,000 in 2015/16 to £14,827,000 in 2018/19.

David Wrigley, Lancashire’s representative on the British Medical Association, said the cuts were adding to pressure on GP services.

He said: “GP services and numbers are already at breaking point and these cuts will add even more strain to GP services.

“Patients will need to access GP services because they will no longer be able to access council run services."

Professor Dominic Harrison, director of public health at Blackburn with Darwen Council, described central government cuts as a ‘false economy’.

He said: “We agree with Local Government Association (LGA) view on this issue.

“Central government placed a cut of nearly 10 per cent on the public health grants to all local authorities in England as a result of the 2015 budget statement – despite continuing to increase NHS spend.

“This is a false economy as diseases not prevented today will place higher avoidable costs to the health and social care economy and limit our capacity to reduce preventable harms to the health of our residents.”

Nationally, the investigation by Pulse - which involved collecting full data from 80 local authorities through FOI requests – found that some areas are scrapping services altogether.

The FOI responses revealed 69 out of 80 councils who responded said they are cutting their public health budgets for 2018/19, after cuts from central government.

But a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said it has a ‘strong track record on public health’.

The spokesman added:“Local authorities are best placed to make choices for their community, which is why we are investing more than £16 billion in local government public health services over the current spending period.”