NHS England has called on GPs to support the early release of prisoners under a new Government scheme.
The Ministry of Justice scheme is designed to help tackle prison capacity issues, and eligible prisoners will be released in England between 10 September and 22 October.
Yesterday, NHS England wrote to GP practices asking for their support with patient registration and assessment in order to ‘ensure the continuity of care’ for these individuals.
Practices will receive a ‘pre-registration notification’ from prison medical services, and should ‘ensure processes are in place to support pre-registration and the subsequent transfer of care’.
The letter stated that prison medical services will arrange the electronic transfer of records to the individual’s new GP practice.
NHS England highlighted that individuals released early from prison do not need a home address, proof of ID or an NHS number in order to register with a GP practice.
The letter also urged GPs to handle registration ‘sensitively’, emphasising that the ‘inability’ to present information ‘is not a reason to refuse registration’.
GPs should also ‘prioritise’ new patient assessments for early-release prisoners and to consider history such as ‘mental health, drug, alcohol and substance misuse needs’.
Prison medical services will provide a discharge summary as well as 28 days of medicines, or up to 14 days of opioid substitution therapy prescriptions.
Any individuals who were under the Special Allocation Scheme (SAS) for violent patients when they entered prison will return to it on their release, and remain there until discharge.
The letter, from NHSE national director of health and justice Kate Davies and group director of primary care delivery and support Alex Morton, said their ‘priority is to ensure continuity of care’.
It continued: ‘At a time of great uncertainty for many of these men and women, who are our patients both in prison and in the community, the ongoing provision of care and treatment is a crucial element in supporting their rehabilitation, reducing health inequalities and minimising the risk of reoffending.’
The Government announced its ambition to ‘tackle the prison capacity crisis’ in July, with plans to ‘temporarily reduce’ the proportion of certain custodial sentences served in prison from 50% to 40%.
This early-release scheme automatically excludes ‘serious violent offences of four years or more’, sex offences and crimes connected to domestic abuse.
