Troubled NHS trust to quit prison health contract

An NHS trust has announced plans to withdraw from a contract to provide healthcare to prison inmates.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) is currently responsible for looking after prisoners at seven jails across the East Midlands and an immigration centre.

In a letter to staff, seen by the BBC, the trust said it had taken the "difficult" decision so it could focus on making improvements in other areas after a damning Care Quality Commission (CQC) report.

Last year, the watchdog published a review, known as a Section 48, criticising the trust, which had been responsible for the care of paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane, who killed three people in Nottingham in June 2023.

The CQC ordered the trust to make improvements after identifying "a series of errors, omissions and misjudgements" by mental health services over Calocane's care.

In its letter to staff, the trust said: "The board felt that we were unable to maintain the quality improvements we have made, in part due to our need to focus capacity and resources on the Trust's improvement journey following the Section 48, CQC and homicide report recommendations."

It added: "We have also had difficulty recruiting into these services on a sustainable basis, and the consensus was that a specialist provider might have more success with this.

"And when, certainly from a regulatory point of view, our focus must be on the Section 48 improvements, we felt that a specialist provider may be better placed to make the improvements needed in the offender health setting."

Under the current contract, the trust cares for inmates at HMP Nottingham, HMP Ranby and HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire.

The contract also covers HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire, HMP Morton Hall, Swinderby Immigration Centre, HMP Lincoln and HMP North Sea Camp in Lincolnshire.

The trust's chief operating officer Becky Sutton said: "We can confirm that we have served notice on the offender health (prison healthcare) contracts that we currently deliver on behalf of NHS England.

"Following the Section 48 recommendations, our priority is to focus our capacity and resources on achieving the objectives of our Integrated Improvement Plan.

"We will be working closely with colleagues who are affected, partners at NHS England and prison services to support a smooth transition of services when a new provider is identified, and until that time our teams will continue to provide care in these settings."

The trust said the decision did not affect Rampton Hospital, in Nottinghamshire, where it is responsible for the care of prisoners at the secure mental health unit.

An NHS England spokesperson said: "We are working with Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to make sure care continues to be delivered safely at the custodial sites where we commission healthcare services until new providers are in place."

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