§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many exchanges there have been between prison department psychiatrists, medical officers, State registered nurses, State enrolled nurses, and National Health Service staff for each regional health authority in the United Kingdom in the past two years.
§ Mr. MayhewArrangements are made locally for prison department hospital staff to serve short attachments in National Health Service hospitals and for National Health Service staff to visit prison department establishments. The information requested is not collected centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans to facilitate further exchanges between medical and nursing staff in the prison department and the National Health Service facilities.
§ Mr. MayhewThe prison department makes extensive use of National Health Service facilities and a substantial proportion of the medical services in prisons is provided by doctors and other specialists who are also employed by the National Health Service. We encourage prison department establishments to make local arrangements for visits by National Health Service nursing staff and for prison hospital officers to spend short periods in National Health Service hospitals although the scope for this is limited because of the difficulty of sparing prison staff from their normal duties. We propose to re-introduce a scheme that will give prison medical officers the opportunity to serve short attachments in the special hospitals.