Transfers of remand and sentenced prisoners to hospital under the mental health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003

Okudo, Unoma

doi:10.1080/14789949.2020.1829003

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…There was one study, providing data on all 124 prisoners for whom transfers were completed (not including requests not implemented) for the year 2016. This covered all 15 prisons in the country, with a population of around 7500 prisoners (Okudo, 2020). The most frequent diagnosis for prisoners transferred to high secure hospital services was PD (67%), while in medium secure (69%), low secure (60%) and IPCUs (intensive psychiatric care units in Scotland) psychotic disorders were most common (65%).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Okudo (2020) reported that 124 prisoners had been transferred to a psychiatric bed, with a mean time to transfer of 21.5 days (SD 29.7 days, range 0–198 days). Seventy (56.5%) of these prisoners were transferred to IPCU.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It should be noted that within the UK, regional factors may also play a role. For instance, in studies looking at transfer times to PICU/IPCU, mean time to transfer varied between 10.5 days in Scotland (Okudo, 2020), 16 days in London (Woods et al., 2020) and 69 days in the East Midlands (Sharpe et al., 2016). This is in keeping with concerns about geographic differences previously highlighted in a report 5 years after the Bradley Report (Durcan et al., 2014) and warrants closer examination in future work, which would ideally be conducted across multiple regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, a 5‐year follow‐up study to the Bradley report found that while transfers had improved, there were ‘still some long waiting times, particularly for some specialist NHS secure services’, with additional concerns about regional variability (Durcan et al., 2014). In Scotland, there is some evidence of fewer transfer problems, with mean transfer times of 21.5 days (Okudo, 2020). We are aware of some research elsewhere in the world, also noting difficulties in ensuring timely transfers (Bone & Roberts, 2019; Skipworth et al., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Delays in transferring patients from prisons to secure psychiatric hospitals: An international systematic review

Sales,

Forrester,

Tully

2023

Criminal Behav Ment Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundTransfer to a psychiatric hospital of prisoners who need inpatient treatment for a mental disorder is an important part of prison healthcare in the UK. It is an essential factor in ensuring the principle of equivalence in the treatment of prisoners. In England and Wales, delays in transferring unwell prisoners to hospital were identified by the 2009 Bradley Report. There has been no subsequent systematic review of progress in so doing nor a corresponding appraisal of transfer arrangements in other parts of the world.AimTo conduct a systematic review of international literature about transfers of mentally unwell individuals from prison to hospital for the treatment of mental disorder since 2009.MethodEight databases were searched for data‐based publications using terms for prison and transfer to hospital from 1 January 2009 to 4 August 2022. Inclusion criteria limited transfer to arrangements for pre‐trial and sentenced prisoners going to a health service hospital, excluding hospital orders made on the conclusion of criminal hearing.ResultsIn England, four articles were identified, all showing that transfer times remain considerably longer than the national targets of 14 days (range, 14 days to >9 months); one study from Scotland found shorter mean transfer times, but more patients had been transferred to psychiatric intensive care units than to secure forensic hospitals. There were only two studies that investigated prison to hospital transfers for mental disorder from outside the UK and only one reported time‐to‐transfer data.ConclusionsFindings from this literature review highlight failures to resolve transfer delays in England and provide little evidence about the problem elsewhere. Given the lack of data, it is unclear whether other countries do not have this problem or simply that there has been no research interest in it. A possible confounding factor here is that, in some countries, all treatment for prisoners’ mental disorders occurs in prison. However, the principle that prisons are not hospitals seems important when people need inpatient care. Prospective, longitudinal cohort studies are urgently needed to map transfer times and outcomes.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%