We visited HMP Doncaster and looked at the services provided by Nottinghamshire NHS Trust. This included primary medical services. We found that patients were unhappy in some cases about the treatment and support they had received from the healthcare staff. There were some issues with privacy and dignity within the healthcare centre and at the hatches used to talk with patients.Patients were not clear about what services were available and this meant there was a lack of understanding of the range of services that could be accessed. There were not long waiting lists for clinics or appointments but this may have been due to lack of knowledge of patients knowing what was available.
There had been some problems with patients receiving medication and recording was not always thorough. Medication administration was not confidential and there were some problems with acquiring medication such as painkillers.
There were some good systems in place for governance and auditing. There were clear links with the cluster of prisons that the trust provided services into. There were systems for monitoring various aspects of the service delivery from a clinical point of view. Systems for gathering feedback from patients were not being used to their full potential and it was not always clear what actions were being taken.
Patients were not able to easily access a complaints system and there were some issues with how the complaints were managed within the healthcare department.