Joe FitzPatrick: Scotland’s public health minister quits after drug-related deaths rise for sixth year

‘It is clear that my presence as a minister will become a distraction,’ he says

Drug deaths in Scotland three times higher than UK average (Getty Images)

Scotland’s public health minister Joe FitzPatrick has resigned after failing to curb drug-related deaths, which have risen for the sixth consecutive year to an all-time high.

The nation suffered more drug fatalities per capita than any country in Europe, and even an opioid-stricken United States, in 2019 – with figures published on Tuesday by National Records Scotland showing 1,264 people lost their lives last year after using drugs.

This is more than double the number of deaths in 2014, at a rate more than three times that of the UK as a whole. 

Amid a fierce public backlash over Holyrood’s failure to stem the crisis, Mr FitzPatrick – who has served in the position since June 2018 – ceded to calls for his resignation on Friday night after speaking with first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

“It has been the privilege of my life to serve in the Scottish government and, during that time, the most heart-breaking and difficult problems I have faced as public health minister is the harms and deaths caused by drug use,” Mr FitzPatrick said.

“As the minister responsible for this area I, ultimately, take my responsibility.

“It is clear that my presence as a minister will become a distraction, when we should be focused on achieving the change we need to save lives. There is nothing I can express that will ease the loss that so many families have felt due to a death from drugs use.

“I can only say how sorry I am for their loss, and that hearing the experiences of the families and the recovery communities will never leave me.”

The Scottish government declared the crisis a public health emergency in 2018 and established a drugs deaths taskforce in 2019, which this year received £4m in government funding. 

But critics have alleged that this funding was merely taken from previous budgets for alcohol and drug partnerships, while the taskforce was accused of failing to meet for four months earlier this year.

And the SNP has repeatedly sought to lay the blame for the apparent inaction at the feet of Westminster, which controls drug policy and has indeed blocked recommended salves such as safer drug consumption facilities and the decriminalisation of drugs. 

However, there are still a number of public health interventions available to Holyrood under its devolved powers, which are yet to be explored, such as allowing quicker access to opiate substitution treatments.

Experts have warned deaths may well continue to increase in 2020 despite some new measures, such as Glasgow’s new heroin assisted treatment centre and increased provision of the lifesaving overdose drug, naloxone.

After leaving Holyrood’s debating chamber as a statement on the latest death statistics began on Tuesday, while devolved leaders mulled Christmas coronavirus restrictions, Ms Sturgeon on Thursday addressed criticism of her government’s handling of the crisis head-on, describing the deaths as “completely unacceptable”.

“It’s on us to show we are on top of the drugs crisis and that’s what I’m determined we do,” she wrote in response to a critical Daily Record article on Friday alleging she had “taken her eye off Scotland’s other epidemic”, which she called “fair”. 

“The lives of those suffering drug addiction matter – they are our family, friends, neighbours. Losing so many is not acceptable and not inevitable.”

She is due to report to MSPs again in January after she meets with the Scottish government’s taskforce.

Ms Sturgeon publicly thanked Mr FitzPatrick for his work in the role and for his service in Holyrood over the past eight years, during which time he also served as minister for parliamentary business.

Angela Constance has been chosen as the new minister for drug policy replacement until the Holyrood elections in May, and the appointment will be put to parliament for approval next week.

The Scottish government said a new public health minister would be nominated on Monday.

“I intend to get straight down to business, meeting with people who are at risk of dying from drugs, learning from the families of those we have lost and working with those in our communities and public health teams who are providing such valuable support,” Ms Constance said.

Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton said Mr FitzPatrick was a “likeable public figure” but alleged he was “just not up to the job”.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “The families of the 1,264 people who lost their lives in the last year to drugs will take little comfort in his resignation.

“They are more interested in how we have reached this shameful position after more than 13 years of the SNP being in power, with Nicola Sturgeon in charge of health for much of that.”

And Scottish Labour health spokesperson Monica Lennon said: "It is right that Joe FitzPatrick has resigned.

"Having been neglected for too long, Scotland's drug deaths emergency must now be given the full attention of the Scottish government."

While the crisis is not unique to Scotland – with drug deaths also rising for eight consecutive years in England, where soaring fatalities and an exodus from treatment services have coincided with a decade marked by austerity, a shift to local funding and a government drugs strategy accused of promoting abstinence at the expense of harm reduction – Scotland’s crisis is unique.

The statistics published this week revealed that while 86 per cent of deaths involved an opiate, the majority of these also involved the use of street-sourced benzodiazepines, such as etizolam or diazepam. 

Some 94 per cent of all deaths in 2019 involved more than one drug, with the type of poly-drug use which has developed in Scotland in recent years bringing increased risks and adding extra complications to treatment efforts.

And while the UK government has often sought to paint an ageing cohort of heroin users with increasing health complications as the reason for the rise in deaths, more than two thirds of those who died in Scotland last year were aged 35 to 54.

Tuesday’s figures were published six months late, a delay put down to coronavirus.