Chamber and committees

You alluded to link workers reporting that there is a lack of understanding of their role—[Inaudible.]—which impedes progress on social prescribing. You also mentioned some successes. What progress has been made on raising awareness of the role and on making it a much more viable route for care and support?

The point of contact still seems to be the GP practice, and we hear a lot of frustration from people who are struggling to get past the receptionist. It seems that everyone is still having to come in to the GP practice to get a referral. It was interesting to hear from Clare Cook earlier about some of the self-referral pathways. What are we doing to address the lack of understanding?

In 2019, when the Health and Sport Committee was taking evidence—I was not on the committee at the time—it heard about a number of barriers that healthcare practitioners faced in relation to their use of social prescribing. Those barriers included a lack of strong evidence on its long-term effectiveness, time constraints, lack of awareness and quality assurance, or how they could be assured of consistency in quality. Linked to that is the issue of continuous monitoring of whether services are still available in the community, because we know how transient some organisations can be due to lack of funding. Has any progress been made in tackling those barriers in the past three years?

You mentioned self-referral, rather than everyone having to phone the GP practice and speak to the receptionist.

Thanks, convener. I hope that you can see me this time. My signal is a bit more stable now.

The Royal College of Nursing has rightly pointed out that people with poor health literacy are less able to identify or label what is wrong with them, and are therefore less able to identify and self-refer to the various alternative pathways that we hear so much about. What is your assessment of the risk that an increase in use of digital pathways will increase the health inequalities that many people face?

Adam Stachura mentioned the scale of the issue, given the number of over-60s who do not have a device, and Chris Mackie said that digital should always be a meaningful choice, so maybe they are interested in responding.

The minister’s statement rightly points out that improved data is needed to quantify and measure work to improve people’s lives—especially people with complex needs who are lost and tied up in hospital. The register will make some progress towards that, but it is concerning that work has not already been undertaken to join up support and care for vulnerable individuals.

Of the people whose release from hospital was delayed by three days or more in December, a quarter were people with complex needs and learning disabilities. Is there a case for expedited progress and real action, rather than more promises? Such promises have noble ambitions, but no instinct for delivery.

I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests: I am a councillor on the City of Edinburgh Council and a member of the Edinburgh alcohol and drug partnership.

This is a very important debate, and one that I am glad to have the chance to speak in as the shadow minister for public health, which is a role that includes drugs policy. I am just sorry that I am not in the chamber.

On the SNP’s watch, drug-related deaths have tripled, while rehabilitation services have trailed far behind. The number of drug deaths in Scotland continues to shame the nation and is a damning indictment of the First Minister having, in her words, taken her “eye off the ball”. Figures from Police Scotland show that there were 1,295 suspected drug deaths between January and December 2021, which is likely to remain the highest per capita figure in western Europe. Scotland’s drug death rate is also 3.5 times that of the UK as a whole. In addition, the latest report shows that the number of female deaths rose from 345 in 2020 to 356 in 2021, with women now making up 27 per cent of the victims. The number of women who are dying from drugs is especially worrying, and it is high time that the SNP got a grip of this sickening epidemic.

Angela Constance herself has said that the Scottish Government needs to do more to help female victims, including by providing more women-specific services. The treatment plans that are offered must be tailored to enable women to access them. For example, daytime recovery sessions need to be provided to women who have children to care for, because residential rehab programmes will not suit or be an option for everyone.

I recently visited the River Garden Auchincruive charity in Ayrshire. It is a training and social enterprise development centre that offers a residential programme for people in the early stages of recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. Its model has up to an 80 percent recovery rate globally on completion of the programme. The visit was fascinating and I was heartened to hear that the centre is expanding and building a women-only residential block. The feeling of calm that I experienced on arriving was noticeable, and left me in no doubt that the location and surroundings are key to the programme’s successes. Those types of facilities and programmes have been shown to be successful and should be properly funded to ensure that they continue to make strides in this difficult and challenging field.

Although not specifically related to drug misuse, I will mention an insightful study that was carried out in South Korea. The study revealed that a therapeutic community-oriented day programme resulted in continuous abstinence rates at six months that were nearly eight times higher than those in the control group. The treatment group and the control group were women. When it comes to treating dependency, we know instinctively that men and women have different needs, so we must ask ourselves what more we can do to address the needs of women.

This week, Annemarie Ward, who is a leading drugs campaigner in Scotland, expressed doubt over the latest drug death figures, warning that some overdoses may have been wrongly classified as Covid fatalities. The SNP Government said yesterday that there had been an 8 per cent fall in suspected drug deaths last year, but the head of one of the country’s top recovery charities said that reports from the front line suggest that the crisis has not improved. Remember that the numbers are still higher than in 2019.

Our focus should be on improving access to rehabilitation and treatment, and that is just as valid for prisoners. That is why I once again urge the SNP Government to back our right to recovery bill, which is backed by experts in the addiction field and would enshrine in law the right of everyone in Scotland to receive potentially life-saving treatment.

That is right. We went out to see you as you got to the end of your long walk.

Everyone was there. There were a lot of people.

It is tremendous that the committee has opened up and been so willing to endorse and support this young man’s dreams and to get the First Minister involved. With everything that we aspire to do as parliamentarians, when there is something as tangible as Callum’s petition, which will make a real difference to so many young people across the country, we would be foolhardy not to get on side and back it all the way.

Thank you, convener. You can see why, when I first saw Callum’s Facebook posts back in May, not long after I got elected, I was so keen to do everything I could to help this young, inspiring boy to aspire to his dreams. I followed him diligently when he walked the John Muir way. We went out and met him, his puppy and his parents in East Lothian with my old dog.

The Scottish Conservatives recognise the impact that Covid restrictions have had on care home residents and their families, and we gladly support the principles that underpin Anne’s law.

During the height of the pandemic, care home residents were unable to see their loved ones. Steps were taken to protect staff and residents from infection but, with hindsight, they undoubtedly caused much anguish for many residents and their families. Anne’s law is the product of a petition to the Scottish Parliament that was lodged by Natasha Hamilton, who was unable to see her mother for prolonged periods during the height of the pandemic. The petition called on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to allow a designated visitor into care homes to support loved ones.

We agree that residents’ rights must be strengthened to give nominated relatives or friends the same access rights to care homes as staff, while following stringent infection control measures. It is unacceptable that residents and families have been subject to a postcode lottery. We must ensure that contact between residents and their close family and friends is not subject to haphazard and fluid policies. Family and friends provide critical support to residents’ mental and physical health and wellbeing, and there is no doubt that prolonged isolation from friends and family has a detrimental effect on care home residents.

With that in mind, we are disappointed that the SNP Government has taken so long to make good on its commitments and now appears to be dragging its feet on introducing the legislation to the Scottish Parliament, despite cross-party support. The commitment to deliver Anne’s law is nearly a year old, but the Scottish Government has not set out a timetable to deliver it. It has merely said that

“Anne’s Law will be introduced to Parliament as soon as is practically possible”.

The SNP allowed more than 100 Covid-positive hospital patients to be sent to care homes at the beginning of the pandemic. A report from Public Health Scotland found that from 1 March to 31 May, 113 hospital patients were discharged to care homes despite testing positive for the virus in hospital. A further 3,061 were not tested at all prior to discharge.

Former health secretary Jeane Freeman admitted that the SNP Government failed to take the right precautions when moving elderly patients from hospitals into care homes during the pandemic. Despite all that, the SNP has refused to order a public inquiry into deaths from coronavirus in Scotland’s care homes. The Scottish Parliament voted for

“the Scottish Government to hold an immediate public inquiry to find out what happened in Scotland’s care homes during the course of the pandemic”,

but Nicola Sturgeon merely said that

“we take note of the Parliament’s view”

and that the SNP Government was seeking

“early discussions on whether and how such an inquiry could be established”.—[Official Report, 5 November 2020; c 22.]

Of course, it is not only our elderly who are in residential care or nursing homes. Many young adults with physical and learning disabilities are also in care. They, too, deserve the right to see their families. Just as isolation from friends and family has a detrimental effect on care home residents, it has a negative impact on young people in similar care settings. There are stark differences between how the public and how care home residents are restricted, as Carol Mochan has rightly pointed out.

Anne’s law has cross-party support. The SNP must stop dithering and bring forward the legislation so that residents and families can have confidence that we are moving beyond what has been a failed and broken approach.