Why people in police detention

When someone is taken to a police custody, they don’t lose Their basic rightsincluding access to healthcare. But modern studies suggest that for many people detained by the police in England, obtaining the necessary care can be straightforward.

Our research Healthcare provision was examined in police apartments and discovered disturbing reality: people kept in custody often encounter long delays in receiving essential treatments. In some cases, they completely deny the drugs – even if they have sedate health conditions.

This is not just a bureaucratic hiccup. These delays and denials can be a real risk for people’s health and well -being, especially for people living with chronic conditions or acute mental health problems.

Health care in police detention NHS is not always delivered. Instead, police forces throughout England suppliers of the commission through Competitive tender. These suppliers employ healthcare professionals who are responsible for the treatment of detainees and responding to crisis situations.

But our studies have shown that the system does not always work as it should. In many cases, health care workers do not have a full -time headquarters in custody apartments. Instead, it can be expected that one professional covers several places, often tens of miles with a distance. It is not unusual that a health care worker is responsible for many apartments spread over 50 miles or more.

This means that when someone in care needs medical support – say, in the case of prescribed medicines – health care may not be. And even if so, they will probably balance the requirements of several locations and try to prioritize people who need attention the most urgently. This segregation process, although necessary in current conditions, can cause significant and hazardous delays.

Delays, denial and disbelief

Delays are often found by another problem: distrust.

Our data – including interviews with healthcare staff, police officers and people with experienced experience – have shown that many care workers are deeply skeptical about the claims of detainees regarding their medicines. There is a forceful fear that detainees can look for drugs or exaggerate their needs, which leads to the adoption of a very cautious approach.

In practice, this means that detainees often wait at least six hours before receiving any medicine – because they have to wait for them to be able to make sure that any drugs taken before the arrest will be metabolized. This practice aims to reduce the risk of overdose, but has been criticized by experts, including Faculty of Forensic and Legal MedicineA charity organization founded by the Royal College of Physicians. By default, he also paints everyone detained as dishonest.

Even when people bring their own prescribed medicine, officers and employees can refuse to administer, unless they are in an original box with a full pharmacy label – a state that many cannot meet, especially if they were suddenly arrested.

One person with whom we interviewed described that she was detained during cancer treatment. Despite the explanation of his situation, he left him without medication.

I can live without food for several hours, but you can’t live without medicine when you have it … They had to take me to the hospital to make sure that everything is all right.

His experience was not protruding values. In interviews and care diaries, we saw repetitive examples of sensitive people missing drugs – whether for mental health, diabetes or pain treatment – because the system either did not believe them or was not equipped to support them.

Closure of the care gap

Based on our findings, we created A series of recommendations To improve health care in police detention. Two are crucial to make sure that the detainees have received timely access to the necessary medicines.

First of all, every care package should have a dedicated health care professional on site. This would significantly reduce delays in treatment, ensuring that the detainees will be immediately assessed and looked after by qualified clinicians.

Secondly, standardize the list of available drugs for all police care suppliers. The universal list of approved treatments would ensure consistency and honesty, regardless of where someone will be stopped.

These recommendations have already been repeated by Independent Association for Visitors to Care and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. Their implementation may have a real impact on people’s safety and dignity during care.

Police restriction is often place of crisis. Receives one of the most sensitive people in society – people experiencing a mental illnessProblems related to the apply of the substance, homelessnessor poverty.

These are people who They are already facing barriers for health care in everyday life. The detention should not become another one.

Timely, appropriate and compassionate care is not only something that is nice. This is human law. And now, in too many care apartments, This right is not denied.