Prison Health Care System

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Primary health care professionals are the first point of contact and provide a range of clinical care services in the prison. Services like clinic assessment, advice, treatment and referrals to other services that are appropriate according to the needs of each individual. According to the Prison Service Order (PSO) 0500 (HMPS, 2004) all prisoners who are newly received into custody are assessed using a standardized reception health screening tool. This is done at reception by a nurse and it’s done to identify any physical or health needs that require immediate attention. These include suicidal risks, mental health assessment history and any acute physical problems. (Birmingham et al 1997; Grubin et al, 1998) After the initial assessment there …show more content…

Reports suggest that male prisoners consult their doctors three times more frequently compare to men outside in the communities. The report also noted that the same prisoners consult their healthcare workers seventy times more frequently than their counterparts out of prison. (Marshall et al, 2001; Bridgewood and Malbob, 1995). Services like NHS or A & E are often utilised by prisoners for treatment purposes. The majority of patients admitted to A&E are often related to mental health and substance abuse or misuse. Suicidal has become number one public health problem for people in prisons and according to figures published by the Ministry of justice, there were 256 deaths in prison custody in England and Wales in 2015, an increase of 14 compared to 2014. A total of 88 people took their own lives in prison in 2015, but after a review that took place regarding death levels in prison, there was a drop in 2016. The main purpose for health services to prisoners is to promote equality and enabling them to access health care that might not be easily assessable outside. During the process of health needs assessment, all prisoners are assessed individually in order to prioritize if some have got complex cases to deal with so that sources of services can be allocated to improve health and quality of

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