Serious failings identified by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons at private prison pharmacy in Wales
Prison inspectors discovered serious failings in the management of pharmacy services at a privately run training prison for young offenders in Wales following an unannounced inspection, according to their report published this week.
They found that the pharmacy dispensed private prescriptions for staff,
that medicines destined for the wing treatment rooms at HM Prison Parc,
Bridgend, never arrived, and that other medicines which were left outside
the pharmacy because they were no longer needed went missing.
Pharmacy staff at the prison, which is run by Group 4 Securicor (G4S),
also supplied medicines “following the verbal instruction of a
doctor” which was relayed by “a third person”, the
HM inspector have revealed.
Healthcare staff failed to follow procedures governing the use of the
out-of-hours medicines cupboard and they disrupted the running of the
pharmacy by visiting it at busy times.
The inspector’s report states: “Overall pharmacy auditing
procedures were inadequate.”
The chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers says in her introduction to
the report: “We identified serious failings with the pharmacy which
required immediate rectification.”
The inspectors recommend that in future the pharmacy door should remain
locked — even during opening hours.
“A proper record of the items, times and purpose for which the
pharmacy is entered out of hours should be kept and maintained on a daily
basis,” they
say.
All medicines should be locked in appropriate storage and the prescribing
of medicines for prison staff should stop, they also recommend.
Healthcare staff should sign for all medicines issued to wing treatment
rooms in
future and if any drugs disappear there should be an investigation which
should be recorded and audited, they add.
The prison is the only juvenile custodial facility in Wales and is the
only one that is run privately.
The inspection focused on the 64-bed unit for remanded and sentenced
prisoners aged between 15 and 18 years. The unit is part of the larger
1,226-prisoner category B prison for men.
Although the prison is run by G4S, the provision of its health services,
including the pharmacy, is run by independent provider Primecare.
A spokesman for Primecare was unavailable for comment.
In a statement, G4S Justice Services Ltd said it welcomed the report
and that the unit “continues to perform positively against the
four metrics of the ‘healthy prison’ test: safety, purposeful
activity, respect and resettlement.”
It confirmed that all the report’s recommendations that fall within “Parc’s
jurisdiction” had been carried out. “For those which do not
fall within our control, the relevant parties have been provided with
the support information to action where necessary.”
The unannounced inspection of the unit took place in October last year.
The visit followed an earlier decision to expand the unit from 36 to
64 beds that had triggered “an
unsettled time”, according to the inspection report.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader