§ Mr. Tom Coxasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if there are any plans for the inmate of Wandsworth prison now receiving dialysis treatment to be given a kidney transplant;
(2) for how long the present private dialysis treatment now being given to an inmate of Wandsworth prison is planned to last;
(3) how many prison officers escort the inmate from Wandsworth prison for dialysis treatment; how many hours are involved in this work per week; and what is the total cost;
(4) who gave permission for an inmate at Wandsworth prison to receive private dialysis treatment; what is the weekly cost of this treatment; and who is responsible for paying for it.
§ Mr. Mellor[pursuant to his reply, 29 April 1987]: After prison medical staff, and a consultant nephrologist, 19W confirmed that the inmate, a foreign national who has been sentenced to nine years' imprisonment for illegal importation of drugs, was in urgent need of dialysis private treatment was authorised by prison department officials as a short term emergency expedient.
Dialysis equipment will shortly be available at Wandsworth prison and when the installation work has been completed and the necessary training in its use given (which, it is estimated, will take about six weeks), the present arrangements will be discontinued. There are no plans for a kidney transplant.
The weekly charge for the treatment, which has been borne on the prisons Vote is £350. A prison officer and hospital officer have been accompanying the prisoner for his treatment twice a week; and the estimated total weekly cost of the escort, which has lasted about eight hours on each occasion, has been £200.