November 6th 2007 - New Hall Prison

Was asked to sit in at a meeting to decide on the policy for dealing with segregated prisoners. I have never been in a prison before. This is for 400 young offenders. The getting to the meeting room was an experience with all the locked gates and doors to get through. I had to have photo ID and leave my mobile phone in the car. The meeting was with the health care team and prison officers. Most of the inmates have drug misuse problems. There is a mental health nurse as well as experienced drug misuse workers. There are general nurses as well as doctors. There is a dentist with dental nurses. The meeting was chaired/run by two colleagues of mine from the PCT and they are most impressive. I was amazed by the expertise in that room and what a fantastic job they are all doing. Why was I there? To look at the GP/team dynamics and the development of a logical training plan for the GPs. I was also there to support my PCT colleagues. I will write again about this. The prison is situated in a lovely area of countryside and there was not a cloud in the autumn sky. I met a prison officer who had been my patient 9 years ago.