NHS walk‐in centres ‐ A potent catalysist for developing prison healthcare

The transfer from the Home Office to Department of Health for commissioning healthcare for patients detained in England’s 123 publicly run prisons was thought, by many observers, to be challenging. Completed between 2004 and 2006, the complexity of the prison healthcare transfer was probably underestimated, given the challenges posed for delivering healthcare within a secure setting by clinical staff working within the prison as well as those working on the outside and coming in ‐ NHS secondary care specialists, self‐employed GPs, dentists, pharmacists and opticians, as well as clinicians employed by private locum agencies and healthcare companies. Other factors were found to hinder the delivery of healthcare services equivalent to patients living outside in the community. These could be: * Prison‐induced (for example, the effects of overcrowding, prison procedures, culture and practices); * Patient‐induced (for example, clinician fear of violence, restricted choice of clinician for patient); * NHS‐induced (for example, low priority because outside the scope of normal NHS target setting or under‐funding).