Royal College of Nursing echoes call to improve health care in prisons
Published: 12 February 2009
Commenting on the Healthcare Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) call for the NHS to provide better health care for adults in the prison system, Janet Davies, Executive Director of Nursing and Service Delivery at the Royal College of Nursing said:
“As this report states, there is an urgent need to improve health care in prisons. Nursing teams working in prisons are more than aware of these problems, but there's only so much you can do with low numbers of staff and inadequate equipment.
Prison nurses are vital to improving the health of people in prisons - a group often highlighted as having poorer health than the general public. For some people, spending time in the prison system can provide valuable access to interventions to improve long term health. Failure to provide appropriate healthcare is a missed opportunity. If the government is committed to improving rehabilitation then they need to invest in prison healthcare staff and equipment."