Inquiry into death of jailed former Pitlochry woman.

FAI: Mother of two passed away days after drugs were withdrawn

A mother of two from Perthshire died in “unascertained” circumstances in her cell at Scotland’s only all-female jail just three days after a prison doctor stopped a cocktail of opiates, tranquillisers, and powerful painkillers she had been prescribed in the community, a fatal accident inquiry heard yesterday.

Tammy Bruce, of Auchterarder – formerly of Pitlochry – was labelled by doctors as a prescription drug user who self-harmed to ensure her medication was never stopped and was found “unresponsive” on her bed in Cornton Vale Prison, near Stirling.

Prison GP Dr Jahangir Khan told the probe, at Falkirk Sheriff Court Miss Bruce, 38, had “historic” slipped discs and fractured ribs and had been prescribed the opiate painkiller Tramadol, the tranquilliser diazepam, and the nerve-pain killer Pregabalin.

The prescription of the drugs contravened guidelines from NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – and “rang alarm bells”.

He said: “My concerns were raised because the pain she was describing didn’t tally with the medication.”

He decided to withdraw the drugs after phoning Miss Bruce’s GP.

“The doctor said he and his partners had been trying to start a gradual reduction of the three drugs but ‘something always happened’, such as a fall or an injury,” he said.

“I believe he was trying to tell me that there was self-harming going on to keep these drugs being prescribed.”

Dr Khan added: “In the prison setting it is easier to deal with these issues.

“Patients can become quite hostile but I have the luxury of having four burly prison officers outside the door, while GPs in the community don’t, so I can understand why this prescribing gets generated or continued.”

Dr Khan, 51, said he had “no concerns” about stopping the drugs, though Miss Bruce had become “even more demanding”.

The inquiry, before Sheriff Derek Livingston, will continue at a date to be fixed.

Tammy Bruce, 38, was found “unresponsive” on her bed in Cornton Vale Prison.