The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7261 p166
9 August 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
Model protocol (PDF 35K and PDF 30K)

Protocol allows out-of-hours medicines for prisoners

Prisoners in England will be able to request non-prescription analgesics or antacids when health care staff are not present under a new protocol developed by the Prison Health Service and the Department of Health.

At the request of a prisoner, prison officers will be able to issue packs containing either two tablets of a paracetamol/methionine combination product for treating pain or an antacid preparation for mild indigestion. A further request for a second dose can be made after four hours if health care staff are still not present. After this, on-call medical staff have to be informed. Prison officers are not allowed to recommend that a prisoner requests or takes any medicine. Prisoners must sign for each dose given.

Pharmacists and health care managers in prisons are responsible for implementing the protocol and for following up any requests made under it. Each prison will have to draw up its own version of the protocol, but they can only include the medicines listed above.

  * PDF files on PJ Online require Acrobat Reader 4 or later