EMERGENCY hospital admissions for patients over the age of 65 cost £1.4bn in a year, according to new Scottish figures.

Officials have published a map showing how public funding is used to look after the elderly ahead of the merging of NHS and council care services later this year.

The analysis, based on data from 2012-13, revealed that three-quarters of the money is spent by the health service - with 58% being used up by hospitals.

Social care services for pensioners, including care homes, accounted for 28% of the cash.

Concern has been expressed in recent months that despite Scottish Government policies saying more should be done to look after people in the community to prevent them needing hospital treatment, the resources have not been made available.

Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said: "With 31% of health and social care spending on people over 65 being eaten up by unplanned hospital admissions, the Scottish Government has got its work cut out to meet its ambition of people being treated at home, rather than hospital, wherever possible. While some of these cases will be genuine emergency admissions for things like strokes and falls, others could have been prevented if the patients concerned had been provided with the care and support they need at home to manage their conditions. This poses a huge challenge to the new integration authorities who will be responsible for providing the right care at home. If they don't manage it, costs will continue to go up and up, and hospitals - which are already under immense pressure - will have an ever increasing burden to bear."

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume described the SNP's approach to health and social care as "jumbled up" in the wake of the publication.

He said: "SNP ministers need to get a grip of integrating health and social care. The government's jumbled approach has meant that specialist hospital beds have been cut whilst admissions continue to soar. This only adds further pressure on an NHS already at crisis point. Meanwhile, these figures show that only 28 per cent of expenditure on older patients was within a social care setting. Older patients are unfairly bearing the brunt of the SNP Government taking its eye off the ball."

From April this year new joint partnerships between health boards and council social service departments will be responsible for delivering elderly care services.

It is hoped that this new approach will lead to more support for the frail in the community and a reduction in the number who need urgent hospital attention.