Action at last on prison zombie drug scandal NURSES GET PROTECTION FROM SPICE

NURSES working in prisons are to be given protection from deadly Spice drug fumes after the Sunday People revealed the scandal.

Action is being finally being taken after we exposed how staff were becoming ill after inhaling the fug while treating inmates.

Officials from the Royal College of Nursing are to meet the Prison Service to hammer out new rules to protect nurses.

Health workers on emergency jail calls are expected to enter cells before the smoke from the synthetic “zombie” cannabis has cleared.

Effects can last for hours, with victims passing out, unable to administer medicine or drive home.

Healthcare staff will now have more involvement in a Prison Service drugs task force, which has been set up to tackle the wider problems of supply and addiction in prisons.

New measures to improve staff safety will also be drawn up.

Fear

In April we revealed how NHS chiefs took the extreme step of temporarily withdrawing nurses from drug-riddled Holme House prison, Stockton-on-tees, for fear of exposure to fumes.

Nearby Kirklevington prison has the same problem.

Last night one nurse at a separate jail said: “There was a day when three people on my team couldn’t give medication because it wouldn’t have been safe.

“Recently there was a batch of Spice with cockroach killer in it so we really have no idea what harmful chemicals we’re inhaling.”

A normal heartbeat is 60 to 90 beats per minute but healthcare staff have seen inmates who have just smoked Spice with heartbeats of 140 to 180 beats per minute, putting them at risk of death.

Ann Norman, Royal College of Nursing spokeswoman for prison nursing, said: “The dangers posed by Spice cannot be overstated.

“This meeting is the first step on the road to improving conditions for dedicated nurses and healthcare assistants who are putting their safety on the line.”

Andrea Albutt, president of the Prison Governors Association, blamed “cuts to staff levels” for the Spice epidemic.