Prison service hits out at doctors' strike
Inmates in Irish jails are increasingly being put at risk by a strike by prison doctors, it was claimed today.
Sean Aylward, the Director General of the Prison Service, said more and more prisoners were being transferred to hospital unnecessarily.
He called on the Irish Medial Organisation to enter new talks with Prison Service management in a bid to solve the dispute and allow GPs to return to work within jails.
“The scale of the problem is mounting. We have more than 1,000 prisoners at this stage who have asked to see a doctor,” he said.
“We have several prisoners with whom we’ve had problems with mental health where we’ve had difficulty in getting somebody in to certify them so they can be transferred across to psychiatric care in the Central Mental Hospital.
“The doctors are tightening the criteria under which they would give us any emergency cover and making it more and more difficult.”
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) began industrial action affecting services in prisons almost two weeks ago.
The withdrawal of doctors’ services, which was initially intended to last one week, means only emergency services are available in the country’s 16 institutions.
There are some 30 prison doctors serving the country’s 3,000-strong prison population.
Dr Martin Daly of the IMO said said prison doctors had been involved in talks for more than three years without any success.
He said GPs had postponed similar action on three previous occasions on the understanding that the IPS would put a serious proposal to them in relation to prison doctors’ pay and conditions.
“We were told that a meaningful settlement would be put in front of us to try to resolve this problem,” he said.
“That offer was disingenuous.”
The issue was thrown back into focus after a Belgian prisoner attempted to escape when he was transferred to hospital after complaining of chest pains.
He asked to use a shower but returned with what is believed to be a CS-gas cannister and sprayed it into the faces of prison officers who were guarding him.
The three-man escort team managed to restrain the man but 12 people were treated for the effects of exposure to the gas in the Accident and Emergency ward of Tallaght Hospital.
Mr Aylward said he accepted that an inmate complaining of chest pains would usually be transferred to hospital regardless of the doctors’ strike but said some prisoners were being taken to hospital unnecessarily.
“We are having more and more such transfers to A&E unnecessarily because we do not have a doctor available to make a diagnosis and see whether it’s necessary,” he said.
“We also have a problem with people coming in who need to be detoxed who are in a bad state and we’re not getting the cooperation that we think is appropriate and ethical.”
The Prison Officers’ Association has called for a review of the policy for escorting prisoners to hospital following the incident at Tallaght Hospital.
