Jonathan McCarthy
24 Oct 2023 · Coroner Hassan Shah · Northampton
This report repeats 1 earlier warning. See the linked reports.
The coroner's concerns
1. unverified community hospital appointments
“There was no evidence that HMP Altcourse took any steps to verify this appointment”
2. unverified community hospital appointments
“There was no evidence that HMP Thameside took any steps to verify this appointment”
3. automatic rescheduling of medical appointments without clinical assessment
“It was suggested in evidence that HMP Thameside automatically re-arrange all community medical appointments for security reasons. It was clarified that the prison would only try to get a new appointment if there was a specific security concern”
4. absence of fitness to transfer assessment
“There was also no evidence that Mr [name redacted] had a fitness to transfer assessment at either HMP Altcourse or HMP Thameside”
5. inadequate medical hold assessment
“assessing fitness to transfer and determining medical hold”
Linked reports
Identical hazardConfidence 0.90 · high
Earlier report
“There must be a robust and clearly documented process in place when assessing a detainee's fitness to transfer, together with clear arrangements made in respect of any medication that the detainee needs to take while out of the prison's care.”
This report
“There was also no evidence that Mr [name redacted] had a fitness to transfer assessment at either HMP Altcourse or HMP Thameside.”
Responses
2023-0402-Response-from-Practice-Plus-Group.pdf ↗· Practice Plus Group
Stated action
“When a patient arrives into the prison a healthcare practitioner undertakes a first night screen, this consists of a face to face assessment of the patient establishing all pre-existing medical conditions and current risk. SystmOne is used to help inform this assessment. This assessment is known as the initial reception screening and forms part of the process for all new admissions. As part of this reception process, any pre-existing external appointments are identified on arrival into the pr”