§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for, the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 11 May,Official Report, column 161, to what extent doctors in the prison service are expected to take into account the risk of the AIDS virus being spread by the sharing of heroin needles when deciding whether to prescribe methadone.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
271WLetter from A. J. Butler to Mr. Alex Carlile, dated 26 May 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question asking the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to what extent doctors in the prison service are expected to take into account the risk of the AIDS virus being spread by the sharing of heroin needles when deciding whether to prescribe methadone.The decision on whether to prescribe methadone to prisoners is a clinical judgment at which prison medical officers are expected to arrive in the same way as medical practitioners do in the community outside prison. This means that they would take into account all the relevant factors including HIV and AIDS. Prison medical officers have the clinical freedom to prescribe pharmaceutically or otherwise to protect the health of individual prisoners. This has been made clear in all HIV/AIDS training in prisons and was recently reinforced by a letter from the Director of Health Care in the Prison Service in a letter to all prison doctors on the 18 May 1994. A copy of this letter is enclosed.Following is the letter referred to in Mr. Butlers communication:
Dear Doctor