By Tom Martin
Justice Secretary Angela Constance is considering calls to keep offenders on local GP lists to prevent them from falling through healthcare gaps after release.
The SNP minister told MSPs she would explore freezing surgery placements amid concerns that losing access to family doctors is a significant barrier to resettlement.
The Wise Group, a social enterprise that supports around 1,500 short-term male prisoners each year, has warned that many struggle to access medical care upon release due to red tape when re-registering.
This comes after the Scottish Government’s latest early release scheme, which has seen up to 390 inmates freed in phases to tackle overcrowding in prisons.
The Wise Group highlighted that accessing GP services is already a “complex issue,” with the Scottish Prison Service assuming care and receiving medical records for many individuals with addiction or mental health issues while serving their sentence.
Upon release, problems such as a lack of ID, delays in transferring medical information, and varying re-registration procedures can further hinder access to GPs.
The Wise Group has called for more to be done to streamline the process with better coordination between agencies.
One of its mentors, who works with offenders and asked not to be identified, told 1919: “It’s a constant struggle. It’s not a straightforward process. Every GP service is different.
“Some will say ‘oh, you need this, this, and this’, while others might be full to capacity and unable to take on new patients.
“Some GP services are excellent. They will go out of their way to get medication sorted out the same day, especially in an emergency.
“But I’ve seen others where it can take up to 20 days just to get registered, leaving the person without medication in the meantime.
“That’s a big issue. It really varies from one GP service to another.”
“It is worrying that people are losing their access to GPs while in prison and this risks acting as a major barrier to starting over”
Pauline McNeill, Scottish Labour justice spokesperson
The mentor also noted that while Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services (ADRS) can arrange community appointments for services like methadone prescriptions, the NHS often does not provide the same support for other health issues.
He added: “At the end of your sentence, the ADRS will set up an appointment with a community addictions team for you.
“If the ADRS can do it for methadone, why can’t the NHS do the same for general healthcare or medication? What’s the difference?”
Emergency legislation passed last year allows eligible inmates sentenced to less than four years to be released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, instead of the previous 50 per cent.
The latest change came into effect on February 11, with prisoners being freed over a six-week period.
This follows a similar move last year, which saw almost 500 inmates released early, with the Wise Group noting that the pressure on throughcare has increased.
Raising the issue of GP access at Holyrood, Scottish Labour justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill proposed freezing offenders’ places on surgery lists as a potential solution.
Constance told her she would give the move “serious consideration,” adding: “Work is being done to improve the connectivity between prison healthcare services and the healthcare services that people are entitled to on release.”
McNeill told 1919: “If we are going to reduce re-offending and keep our communities safe, we need to make sure people leaving prison have the right support.
“It is worrying that people are losing their access to GPs while in prison, and this risks acting as a major barrier to starting over.
“I have urged the Cabinet Secretary to act to address this issue and will continue to call on her to do so, so there is no lapse in medical care for those leaving prison.”