Prisons (Health Care) (Hansard, 27 February 1996)

§ Sir John Wheeler

Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Prison Service under its chief executive, Mr. Alan Shannon. I have asked him to arrange for reply to be given.

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Letter from A. D. Shannon to Mr. Neil Gerrard, dated 26 February 1996: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary Questions in which you ask:

(i) the percentage of the total annual budget for prisons in Northern Ireland that is designated for health care;
(ii) the provision available to prisoners in Northern Ireland for therapeutic and psychological follow up in the case of positive results in tests for transmissible diseases;
(iii) the policy of the Northern Ireland Prison Service in relation to the prevention of transmissible and contagious diseases;
(iv) the provisions that are made for terminally ill prisoners in Northern Ireland;
(v) the number of nurses and doctors employed within the Northern Ireland Prison Service per 100 inmates;
(vi) the number of terminally ill prisoners in Northern Ireland and the cause of the illness;
(vii) what regular medical checks prisons in Northern Ireland receive and what systematic checks are carried out for transmissible diseases;
(viii) the steps taken to prevent discrimination against prisoners in Northern Ireland with specific health problems;
(ix) the number of prisoners who have died in prison in Northern Ireland in each year since 1992 and the cause of death in each case;
(x) the steps taken to ensure the confidentiality of medical checks on prisoners in Northern Ireland, including where a case of transmissible disease is identified.

The health care element of the Prison Service budget in 1995/96 is £1.1 million, which is slightly less than 1% of he overall budget of £143 million. A prisoner diagnosed as suffering from a transmissible disease has access to a Consultant Physician with the required specialist. Where necessary, psychiatric and psychology services are provided by two part-time Consultant Psychiatrists and four full-time Psychologists. The policy on the management of transmissible or contagious diseases depends largely on the condition involved. There is a written policy for the management of patients with HIV or Hepatitis B infection. Prison Medical Officers would take advice on managing outbreaks of infectious diseases from Consultants in Communicable Disease Control within Health and Personal Social Services Boards in Northern Ireland. Prisoners who are diagnosed as having a terminal illness will have access to those provisions made available to members of the public by Health and Personal Social Services Boards. Health care facilities for prisoners are provided by five full-time and two part-time medical officers and nine full-time and two part-time nursing staff. In addition, General Practitioner Practices provide support at three prison establishments in Northern Ireland. All these are employed by the Department of Health and Social

Department of Agriculture
Name of body	Publish annual report	Publish annual accounts	Publish minutes of meetings	Publish agendas of meetings	Publish register of members' interest
Livestock and Meat Commission	Yes (S)	Yes (S)	No	No	No
Agricultural Wages Board	Yes (S)¹	No	No	No	No
Agricultural Resource Institute	Yes (S)	Yes (S)	No	No	No
Foyle Fisheries Commission	Yes (S)	Yes (V)	No	No	No
Fishery Harbour Authority	Yes (V)	Yes (V)	No	No	No
Fisheries Conservancy Board	Yes (S)	Yes (S)	No	No	No
Notes:
S = Statutory requirements
V = Voluntary.
¹ Report is published biannually.

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Services. Health care staff are supplemented by 44 prison grade hospital officers. On 22 February 1996 the prison population was 1593 prisoners. There are no terminally ill prisoners currently in prisons in Northern Ireland. Prisoners have access to a doctor on a daily basis. They are medically screened on admission to prison, before a court appearance, transfer, discharge and disciplinary hearing. Regular medical checks are carried out on those deemed to require further attention. There are no routine systematic checks carried out for transmissible diseases. All prisoners are integrated, where appropriate, into a normal location including those with specific health problems. Prison Rules in Northern Ireland permit Medical Officers to separate from other prisons any prisoner whose health makes such separation advisable in his own interest or that of other prisoners. Prisoners' medical conditions are treated as Medical in Confidence at all times. Medical Officers to separate from other prisoners any prisoner whose health makes such separation advisable in his own interest or that of other prisoners. Prisoners' medical conditions are treated as Medical in Confidence at all times. Nine prisoners have died in prison on Northern Ireland since 1992. Six of the deaths occurred in 1994—three were self-inflicted, two died from cancer and one from heart disease. Three deaths occurred in 1995—two were self-inflicted and one prisoner died from septicaemia. Prisoners' medical records are held in a confidential file within a secure cabinet in the prison health care centre: the same rules of confidentiality are applied as for the general public.