Description

Providing healthcare for prisoners has traditionally been the responsibility of the prison service. However, there have been long standing concerns about the quality of healthcare provided in prisons. These include Prisons Medicine being out of date, a focus on illness and not on health, and lack of any clinical audit, continuing professional development, and professional isolation. Thematic inspections by the Prisons Inspectorate have also highlighted concerns about lack of a coordinated approach to delivery of mental health. Health care delivered in prisons is not normally planned on the basis of need despite it being a requirement of the Prison health care standards (including seeking specialist advice on conducting these assessments). In an inspection of nineteen prisons in England and Wales during 1996-7 none had conducted a needs assessment. In view of these concerns, two recent reports made recommendations for the restructuring of the prison health care service with a view to improving prison health care. Both reports also recommended that comprehensive health needs assessment of the prison population should be carried out.