Prison health firm’s care criticised

A PRISON watchdog has said a sex offender who died of lung cancer was given substandard care in a North East prison.

HMP Frankland inmate David Kendall was diagnosed with the disease after prison staff noticed him “bumping into walls”. He died last July.

A new report from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has criticised the quality of care the 55-year-old received in his final months. The report said: “The care that Mr Kendall received at HMP Frankland after his cancer diagnosis was not wholly of the required standard. It was, in parts, not equivalent to that which he could have expected to receive in the community.”

He had been serving an indeterminate sentence since 2008 for sexual offences, and was transferred to HMP Frankland in 2012. The report says Kendall was sent to hospital in August 2019 after a prison nurse spotted him “walking unsteadily and bumping into walls”.

Blood tests, X-rays and GP appointments followed until cancer was suspected that October. He was diagnosed in November following a biopsy and ultrasound.

By March, staff ruled that “it was no longer safe” for him to remain on the wing while by the middle of the month he was “unable to communicate verbally”.

By July, he was “struggling to eat, was getting weaker and was struggling with personal care” before an end of life care plan was put in place on July 22. He died on July 24 at the prison’s healthcare centre.

Ombudsman Lisa Burrell has now told the prison’s healthcare provider, Spectrum, to ensure patients receive discharge letters; training is place for monitoring staff; appointments and referrals are more timely; mental health assessments are included in assessments; and video consultations are used to allow inmates to see external staff.