Concern at lack of nurses

Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons has raised concerns about a shortage of mental health nurses at one of the country’s largest prisons.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland returned to HMP Grampian in Peterhead earlier this year after a 2015 inspection led to healthcare at the jail being graded “poor”.

While inspectors found efforts had been made to address the concerns, they were told nurse staffing levels “continued to be an issue,” reaching a “critical low” in July and August last year.

A report published today said recruiting staff across NHS Grampian as a whole was a challenge, with the prison competing with hospitals.

The report called on the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Grampian to consider alternative delivery models. Wendy Sinclair-gieben, Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons, said alternatives such as carrying out appointments remotely, so-called telemedicine, was one option to be looked at.

She said: “In reality what happens at present is that staff get very tired because the staff you do have end up working long hours and doing lots of overtime. They’ve tried their level best to recruit, so what they are now doing is looking at alternatives such as telemedicine.”