A clean bill of health? The efficacy of an NHS commissioned outsourced police custody healthcare service

De Viggiani, Nick

Abstract

Police custody healthcare services for detainees in the UK are most commonly outsourced to independent healthcare providers who employ custody nurses and forensic physicians to deliver forensic healthcare services. A pilot was introduced in 2008 by the Department of Health to explore the efficacy of commissioning custody healthcare via the NHS, in the wake of the 2005-2006 shift of prison healthcare to the NHS. The objective was to improve quality and accountability through NHS commissioning and the introduction of NHS governance to the management and delivery of custody healthcare. This article discusses key themes that arose from the project evaluation, which focused on the commissioning relationship between the police, the NHS commissioner and the private healthcare provider. The evaluation observed an evolving relationship between the police, the local NHS and the front-line nurses, which was complicated by the quite distinctive professional values and ideologies operating, with their contrasting organisational imperatives and discordant values and principles. A key challenge for commissioners is to develop synergy between operational and strategically located stakeholders so that they can work effectively towards common goals. Government policy appears to remain focused on creating safe, supportive and humane custody environments that balance criminal justice and health imperatives and support the rights and needs of detainees, victims, professionals and the public. This remains an ambitious agenda and presents a major challenge for new criminal justice health partnerships. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine
• Print ISSN: 1752-928X
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 610-617
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2013.03.014
• Keywords: police custody healthcare, custody nursing, forensic nursing, NHS commissioning
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/929580
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2013.03.014
• Related Public URLs: http://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S1752928X13000656