3 minute read
Know Your Rights: Your guide to medicine in prison
Your guide to medication in prison Words: Words: WIP’s Jade Coulon, Health Advocate, Healthy Foundations Project
People in prison are entitled to the same quality and range of healthcare services that are available in the community. Since 2011 the NHS has overseen prison healthcare, including services in privately run prisons. For some, it may be an opportunity to raise health concerns they may not have been able to address in the community. However, feedback from the women we work with in prison tells us that not all healthcare services they receive mirror those in the community. One of their major concerns is that the medication prescribed to them in the community was stopped, changed or reduced when they entered prison.
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When you arrive at prison, you should receive a healthcare screening where a nurse will ask you a number of health-related questions, including what medication you are taking. They will also ask you for the details of your GP in the community. This information allows the healthcare team to access your GP medication summary online. In certain situations, your GP may need to be contacted for more detailed records. Until these records can be confirmed, some drugs cannot be prescribed to you, or prescribed at the dosage you’re used to, particularly if they are ‘controlled medications’.
Controlled medications* can cause serious health issues if not used properly and can also be addictive, therefore, extra safety measures must be put in place when prescribing them. Some of the more commonly encountered drugs on the controlled drugs list include methadone, oxycodone, pregabalin and many others. Being in such high demand, access to these lucrative (meaning ‘profitable’) medications can often result in a number of serious safety concerns, including risk of overdose and bullying among peers. For
example, individuals who are prescribed these highly sought after medications may find themselves targets of harassment. Alternatively, some people may sell these medications to their peers. Subsequently, these medicines may be prescribed at a lower dosage, or not prescribed as in-possession medications, if at all. However, some of these medicines can also be a necessity for those who rely on them to manage their health and wellbeing. Making these medications available to those that need them, while also ensuring the safety of the residents by minimising trading, is a complex problem with no simple answer. Each prison develops its own protocol to minimise misuse of medication.
Some medications have restricted use in prison for other safety reasons. For example, medications that can cause drowsiness, such as zopiclone and other sleeping pills, may put residents in danger if they become too drowsy overnight, in their cell and are unable to raise the alarm if something is wrong.
In other cases, medications may not be prescribed, or the dosage may be adjusted in prison because the prison GP may have reviewed your health needs and decided that, that particular medication is not the best thing for you. In the community, it’s common for your medication not to be reviewed for a long time – it may not be helping you anymore, or in some instances, may even be doing you more damage than good and thus may be replaced by alternative treatments available.
If you don’t think your medication is correct, you can ask for a medication review with a prison GP and ask them to explain why your medicines have changed. They may not be able to prescribe a medication or change a dosage, but they should be able to explain why, and potentially offer you alternative treatments or support services. For example, if you’re experiencing pain you may be able to attend a nurse-led pain clinic to discuss ways of managing pain without medication, like making adjustments to your room, or wearing compression bandages. Alternatively, you may be able to attend specialist gym activities to target pain through exercise or physiotherapy.
*Controlled medications in prison include dexamphetamine, clonazepam, codeine, diazepam and diamorphine.
