Mr Chisholm said the claims were "outrageous"

Malcolm Chisholm has insisted there are no plans to review the policy.

It comes after former education minister Sam Galbraith branded the policy as a "ticking time bomb" which should be scrapped.

Mr Galbraith said that Scotland's ageing population means other services will have to be cut to pay for care.

Writing in Holyrood Magazine, he alleged that part of the money had come from cancer services in Scotland.

Nationalists accused him of mounting a guerrilla campaign against the policy.

One of the first things I did as health minister at the beginning of 2002 was increase the cancer budget Malcolm Chisholm Health minister

Age Concern also hit out at Mr Galbraith's criticism of the policy.

In his article, Mr Galbraith said that the present policy benefits the middle classes, not the poor.

He also said that Labour was blackmailed into free personal care by its coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.

"It is something that will have short and long-term implications," he said.

"Most people do not realise that it was funded by spending �80m less each year on the cancer budget.

'Policy for wealthy'

"And an ageing population will mean future increases to the cost of implementation, resulting in additional cuts elsewhere. It is a ticking time bomb."

He added: "It is undeniable that the policy benefits the wealthy. The vast majority of the elderly have always had free personal care - it was only the well-off middle class minority who did not."

But Mr Chisholm categorically dismissed the former minister's allegations.

"The really outrageous thing which Sam Galbraith has said today is that the money for free personal care came from the cancer budget," he said.

"That is absolutely outrageous and absolute nonsense.

It is simply not good enough to try and play politics with elderly people Shona Robison Scottish National Party

"I know that for a fact because one of the first things I did as health minister at the beginning of 2002 was increase the cancer budget."

Robert Brown, convener of the Liberal Democrat's Scottish policy unit, said the whole issue was that people should have the support of the state in their declining years.

"Most people in Scotland will regard the idea of supporting elderly people in this fashion, through their weakness and incapacity, is a good use of public money," he said.

Shona Robison, health spokeswoman for the Scottish Nationalist Party, described Mr Galbraith's comments as "quite disgraceful".

She told BBC Radio Scotland: "It is one thing to argue about where money should be spent, but it is quite unacceptable to imply that older people have somehow raided cancer budgets to pay for their care.

"I don't believe that is the case at all and I think Sam Galbraith has selected cancer for impact and nothing else.

"It is simply not good enough to try and play politics with elderly people."

The policy ensures old people receive help at home or in hospital

Maureen O'Neill, director of Age Concern Scotland, praised the policy.

"It was a commitment made about money that has been generated in Scotland for a range of things and the Scottish Executive prioritised it," she said.

Ms O'Neill added: "It is a very successful policy and it absolutely sold the power of devolution.

"I think the Scottish Parliament has to be congratulated on their forward thinking on this one."

First Minister Jack McConnell insisted that free personal care for the elderly was a "long-term commitment" by the Scottish Executive and he said that it would be properly financed well into the future.