Plea to doctors to improve prisons’ ‘fragile’ health care

♦ Health chiefs have appealed for family doctors to work in two understaffed prisons to improve the “very fragile state” of health care within the institutions.

GPS in Lancashire have been asked to step forward to help shore up the service against “very significant risks”.

The appeal was made in April this year by the NHS trust which runs health at HMP Garth, a Category B men’s prison, and neighbouring HMP Wymott, a Category C men’s training prison. A letter from Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, seen by the website Pulse, said: “I would not ask for this assistance were the risks not very significant in this service.” It added: “The services at HMP Wymott are in a very fragile state.”

A spokesman for the trust later said the appeal had been intended as a “short-term solution”.

Dr David Barrett, a Midlands GP who works with prisons, said he was “overwhelmed” with requests, but added: “I avoid certain prisons as it is just not worth the personal risk.”