Q449 Mr. Dave Anderson: Can I ask for your comments on the proposed transfer to the Department of Health of healthcare responsibilities?

Mrs Doherty: I personally have been disappointed in the time lapse between the transfer of health from the Prison Service to the local health authority. I thought under RPA it would be transferred straight away on 1 April. That has not happened and I believe it is not going to happen until the beginning of October. There is a number of issues which concern us regarding this. First of all, clinical governance. What is going to happen, and if the prisoners have complaints regarding health who will they go to? Will they go to the healthcare people or will they go to the prison? That is still being discussed. So that has to be sorted out, but it is obviously in limbo at the moment. The other provision I am concerned about is mental health provision in prison because a lot of inmates are sent to prison and they have mental disorders and personality problems. Prison is not the place for them, but there does not seem to be anywhere in healthcare that is the place for them either, so that needs to be addressed urgently, I would suggest. The other thing which concerns my board particularly is medication. When inmates are transferred from Maghaberry to Magilligan their medication is either reduced, withdrawn completely or changed, and we would have a number of complaints about that. We have been discussing it with the governor and we have been monitoring it. If you change, reduce or withdraw somebody's medication and they have been on it for a long period of time that can lead to major problems and I think we might have seen the outcome of a number of those in the past year. We are still awaiting those reports, but we have made a recommendation in this year's report that all records are transferred with the inmates when they come to Magilligan and that they are put on a computer with limited access so that that the medical records also come, because sometimes they do not come down with the inmates. I think the prison is looking at a prescribing protocol that all doctors will adhere to, because obviously the docors we have at Magilligan do not adhere to the same prescribing protocol as they do in Maghaberry and they are always wanting to wean them off medication or reduce it, and that has caused us a number of problems. There are two inmates I deal with on a frequent basis where my members are monitoring their medication and monitoring the effect it is having and the governor has dealt with it for the last three months, and the next thing is the prescription is due for renewal and we have the same problem, and we are back into the same cycle.

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Q459 Mr. Dave Anderson: Do you know where the budget for medication comes from? Is it individual GPs or just from within the estates?

Mr McClean: I do not know who funds it.

Q460 Mr. Dave Anderson: Do you think the transfer fully into healthcare will alleviate that problem?

Mrs Doherty: We do not know. I do not know.

Q461 Chairman: Although it has legally happened, it has not physically happened, has it? This is the problem.

Mrs Doherty: Exactly, yes.

This is an uncorrected transcript of evidence taken in public and reported to the House. The transcript has been placed on the internet on the authority of the Committee. Neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record. The transcript is not yet an approved formal record of these proceedings.

The full transcript may be read at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmniaf/uc520-vi/uc52002.htm

Promoted by Paul Foy on behalf of Dave Anderson, both of St Cuthbert's Church Hall, Shibdon Road, Blaydon, NE21 5PT