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General Practitioner in Prison Healthcare
HMP Barlinnie
The General Medical Practitioner is expected to undertake the following activities to a level of competence appropriate to a General Medical Practitioner:
o Diagnosis and management of new symptoms and conditions. A primary care nurse will usually triage prisoner/patients reporting new symptoms and if unable to deal with the symptoms may refer the patient to the General Medical Practitioner.
o Follow-up and care of chronic and recurrent conditions. This includes regular review of continuing medication and advising nurses or other healthcare professionals on the management of the prisoner/patient.
o Prescribing for the management of drug and alcohol dependence.
o Medical examinations of newly received prisoner/patients as requested by a triage nurse. Timely and appropriate interventions should be arranged with particular attention to those:
- Already under treatment
- With symptoms that may indicate an undiagnosed illness
- With current illness
- With a history of drug or alcohol abuse
- With a history of attempted suicide or self-harm
- With a mental health problem
o Assessment of prisoner/patients to determine fitness for cellular confinement with respect to adjudication.
o Assessment of prisoner/patients recognised to be at risk of self harm. To help identify and care for prisoner/patients at risk of suicide or self-harm, the Scottish Prison Service uses a suicide risk management and care-planning system called ACT2Care, designed to provide more flexible multi-disciplinary support to prisoner/patients at-risk of harming themselves. General Medical Practitioners are required to sign off and contribute to documentation. Training will be provided on this process.
o Regular assessment and review of prisoner/patients in agreement with the Health Centre Manager.
o Injured prisoner/patients. Prisoner/patients are involved in a variety of activities that might lead to injury: self-harm, fights, control & restraint applied appropriately by staff, sports / gym, work accidents, and bullying. Injured prisoner/patients will be assessed by a nurse.