THE chief inspector of Scotland's prisons has called for an urgent review of medical care for inmates with mental health and addiction problems at one of the country's jails.
A report says healthcare at Edinburgh Prison is good in general but limited staff numbers have been leading to delays for prisoners accessing some services.
Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland David Strang said NHS Lothian should carry out a review, with emphasis on mental health and addiction provisions, "as a matter of urgency".
It is one of 69 recommendations in a report which describes the jail as generally well-run and highlights 18 areas of good practice.
The inspector said: "Prisoners requiring addictions and mental health interventions can experience delays.
"There are concerns regarding the high levels of staff turnover especially among the mental health and addictions nurses. NHS Lothian recognises these issues and is attempting to improve matters."
One woman prisoner who had been referred to an addictions nurse in June had still not been assessed in September, he said.
HMP Edinburgh, in the city's Saughton, houses male and female prisoners, long-term, short-term and sexual offenders, and people still awaiting trial. It holds 907 prisoners, exceeding its 870 design capacity.
Alex McMahon, director of strategic planning, performance reporting and information at NHS Lothian, said: "We note the recommendations and have already addressed a number of these as part of an ongoing action plan."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article