Local hospital refuses to assess inmates

PRISONERS at a midlands prison have to travel more than 50 miles for psychiatric assessment because the local hospital will not treat them.

The practice has come in for severe criticism from the Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention, according to a report in Medicine Weekly.

In his first annual report for 2002-2003, Dermot Kinlen said it was “bureaucratic nonsense” to refer prisoners to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Co Dublin, when Portlaoise had its own psychiatric hospital.

He said despite the presence of two prisons and a county and psychiatric hospital in Portlaoise the psychiatric hospital would “have nothing whatsoever to do with the prisoners, as they are not normally resident in the MHB”.

According to Mr Kinlen, if a judge sitting in Portlaoise required a psychiatric report on a prisoner, the person in detention would have to be taken by three prison officers to Dundrum for assessment.

A psychiatrist there would then have to write out a report and the prisoner would be brought back to his prison of origin.

A spokesman for the Prison Services said that because Portlaoise is a high security prison, a minimum two-man escort would accompany every prisoner.

“It would be much more convenient for us not to have to take them to Dundrum.

“The Central Mental Hospital is always under pressure and there are delays in getting people seen.”

However, the spokesman said it was a matter for the Department of Health how the structured the service.

Responding to Mr Kinlen’s criticism, a statement from the Midland Health Board said it would play its role in the development of services for the prison population.

“The MHB is anxious in so far as possible and practicable to respond to the health needs of the prison population as it would the needs of any other person requiring health services,” the statement said.