Archived: HMP Frankland

Updated 20 December 2019

HM Prison Frankland is a high security prison holding category A high risk prisoners, category A and Category B adult males. The prison is in the village of Brasside in County Durham, England and accommodates up to 842 adult male prisoners. The prison is operated by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). G4S Health Services (UK) Limited is commissioned by NHS England to provide primary health care and clinical substance misuse services at the prison. G4S is registered with CQC to provide the regulated activities of Diagnostic and screening procedures and Treatment of disease, disorder or injury at the location HMP Frankland.

Updated 20 December 2019

We carried out an announced focused inspection of healthcare services provided by G4S Health Services (UK) Limited at HMP Frankland on the 4 January 2019.

We last inspected the service in May 2018 when we judged that the quality of healthcare provided by G4S Health Services (UK) Limited was in breach of CQC regulations. We issued a Warning Notice in relation to Regulation 17 Good governance and a Requirement Notice in relation to Regulation 9 Person centred care. The full focused report on the May 2018 inspection can be found on our website at https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-1988036653

The purpose of this inspection was to determine if the healthcare services provided by G4S Health Services (UK) Limited were now meeting the legal requirements and regulations under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

We do not currently rate services provided in prisons.

At this inspection we found:

• Patient risk was identified, managed and monitored more effectively than at the time of our previous inspection. The provider had improved systems and processes with respect to the completion of medicines in-possession risk assessments (MIPRA).
• Some aspects of medicines management required ongoing monitoring.
• Shared learning from incidents took place and was appropriately shared with staff.
• Nursing staff had completed specific training in respect of managing long term conditions.
• Measures were in place to review patients’ care plans, but involving patients in care planning required further development.
• Effective managerial oversight of staff supervision arrangements was in place and needed further development to ensure it was fully embedded across the service.
• Overall systems to support good governance at local level were not fully embedded across the service.

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Staff should be sufficiently trained to support and enable them to carry out their duties.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure that effective governance arrangements, assess, monitor and mitigate any risks relating to the health, safety and welfare of people using the service.