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.

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.

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.

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by the president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, who said that local authorities are at breaking point. (S6O-00832)

The City of Edinburgh Council plans to borrow £1 billion to fund city spending over the next four years. Borrowing while interest rates are rising will involve a difficult balancing act, which will bring with it significant financial risk. Does the Scottish Government agree that its persistent underfunding of local authorities has led to councils such as the City of Edinburgh Council having to take such high-stakes financial risks?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I am sorry—before asking my question, I should have declared that I am a councillor in the City of Edinburgh Council.

Although Essure devices were withdrawn from the United Kingdom market in 2017, it is estimated that up to 2,000 women were implanted with devices. Can the minister advise members which of Scotland’s health boards implanted devices, and whether the Scottish Government has considered the merits of writing to the relevant individual GPs to raise awareness of the device’s crippling long-term side effects, given how busy the GP workload is?

I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interest, as I am a councillor on City of Edinburgh Council.

I thank Jenni Minto for bringing the debate to the chamber and am delighted to have a chance to speak in recognition of Dr Elsie Inglis.

We have heard a lot about Elsie’s life and achievements and I am sure that we will learn more. Born in India, she moved to Edinburgh aged 14 with her family in 1878 and attended the Edinburgh Institute for the Education of Young Ladies until 1882. She knew that she wanted to pursue a career in medicine. In 1886, Dr Sophia Jex-Blake opened the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, where Inglis began her medical training.

In 1906, Inglis launched the Scottish Women’s Suffrage Federation, fighting not only for the women’s vote but for equal rights in education and the medical profession. She was nearly 50 in 1914 when war was declared and her patriotism led her to offer her services to the War Office, only for her to be turned away and denied. Inglis suggested the creation of medical units staffed by women, which could provide aid to British forces on the western front. However, she was rejected by the British War Office, the Red Cross, and the Royal Army Medical Corps. The reason for the rejection was that a woman’s role was at home.

Not deterred, Inglis fought to form independent hospital units staffed by women. An appeal for funds and support soon attracted more than just suffragette supporters. Funds poured in for the organisation—the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service—and both the French and the Serbs accepted the offer of the all-female medical units. The first unit left for France in November 1914 and the second went to Serbia in January 1915. Inglis went to Serbia in 1915 as the chief medical officer but, in the autumn, Serbia was invaded and Inglis’s hospital was taken over by Germans. She was interned until February 1916, when she was sent home.

In April 1916, Inglis became the first woman to be decorated with the order of the white eagle. The Elsie Inglis maternity hospital was established with surplus funds arising from the disbandment of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service, the organisation that she had formed. The 20-bed hospital opened in July 1925 and closed in 1988. My dad, sister and cousins were all born there, as were countless other Edinburgh residents. Although it is now closed, it is yet another reason that a statue should be erected in her honour.

Considering all the pioneering successes that medical trailblazer Elsie Inglis had, it seems only fitting that a statue be erected in her honour in Edinburgh. There are, in fact, more animal statues than ones for women in our capital city. A long-awaited celebration of her life and legacy is now under way in Edinburgh to raise funds for a statue after a campaign was launched five years ago to coincide with the centenary of her death. The campaign has been spearheaded by the Edinburgh branch of the Girlguiding movement. Tickets are now available for several special events that will kick-start a fundraising drive. It is hoped that £50,000 will be raised to pay for a statue of her to be designed and erected on the Royal Mile.

As a councillor for the city, I was delighted to support the motion that was brought to the city chambers by the Lord Provost Frank Ross endorsing the campaign for her statue. Dr Elsie Inglis was a wartime heroine, a leading figure in the women’s suffrage movement and a founder of the Scottish women’s hospitals. Like everyone who is in the chamber, I hope that her extraordinary life will be fittingly remembered.

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.