Her Majesty's Prison Whitemoor

Updated 22 December 2023

His Majesty’s Prison Whitemoor is a category A high security dispersal prison that holds around 430 men, all serving long sentences for serious offences. Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of primary healthcare services to prisoners, comparable to those found in the wider community. This includes nursing, GP, mental health, substance misuse and pharmacy services. Dental services are subcontracted. The location is registered to provide the regulated activities: treatment of disease, disorder, or injury, diagnostic and screening procedures and surgical procedures.

CQC previously inspected this location with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons between the 12 – 16 December 2022. We found evidence that fundamental standards were not being met and a Requirement Notice was issued in relation to Regulation 12, Safe care and treatment, of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We subsequently asked the trust to make improvements regarding these breaches. We checked these areas, and other relevant joint recommendations, as part of this focused inspection. We found that the provider had addressed the previous breaches of regulations identified that fell within their control and remit.

The report from CQC’s comprehensive inspection in December can be found at:

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/hmp-whitemoor-3/

Updated 22 December 2023

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on the 05 December 2023 to confirm that the legal provider had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to breaches in regulations that we identified on our previous inspection between 12 to 16 December 2022. This comprehensive inspection had been carried out in partnership with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP).

During the comprehensive inspection by CQC and HMIP in December 2023, we found that the quality of healthcare provided by Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) at this location did not meet the fundamental standards. We issued a Requirement Notice in relation to Regulation 12, Safe care and treatment, of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

The purpose of this focused inspection was to determine if the healthcare services provided by NHFT were now meeting the legal requirements of the above 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:

• Managers had ensured that secondary dispensing was not occurring across the prison including in the segregation unit and the inpatient healthcare unit.
• Nursing staff had stopped pre signing patient medicine records before administering medicines.
• On most occasions Controlled Drugs were administered with second checking in place. Managers had processes in place to help mitigate risks where a second checker was not available.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Ensure that all Controlled Drugs are issued with a second checker.