The Care Quality Commission
  • Prison healthcare

Her Majesty's Prison Whitemoor

Longhill Road, March, Cambridgeshire, PE15 0PR

Provided and run by:
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

All Inspections

05 December 2023

During an inspection looking at part of the service

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.

4 December 2017

During an inspection looking at part of the service

This inspection was an announced focused inspection carried out on 4 December 2017 to confirm that the provider had carried out their plan to meet the legal requirements in relation to the breaches in regulations that we identified in our previous inspection between 20 and 23 March 2017. The March 2017 comprehensive inspection was carried out in partnership with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) in accordance with our published methodology.

This report covers our findings in relation to those aspects detailed in the Requirement Notices dated 28 July 2017 and the joint HMIP/CQC report recommendations that related to healthcare delivery. We do not currently rate services provided in prisons..

Our key findings were as follows:

  • There were positive relationships between trust staff, the prison and service commissioners, which were contributing to service improvements.

  • Significant improvements had been made to the way medicines were managed that improved patient safety, patient experience and the effectiveness of medicines. There was good oversight and monitoring by a pharmacist.

  • The safety of the dental service was monitored and risks were being addressed. The planned refurbishment of the dental suite had not commenced and there were concerns about the reliability of ageing equipment.

  • Actions to improve services to patients with mild to moderate mental health needs were well advanced but not yet complete.

  • Patients’ general health was being more actively promoted and a joint wellbeing strategy was being developed with the prison.

  • Trust staff were no longer providing personal care to prisoners. Proper formalised arrangements were in place to ensure prisoners’ personal care needs were met.

    However, there were also areas of practice where the provider needs to make further improvements.

The provider should:

  • Implement additional recommendations from the NHS England Pharmaceutical Adviser’s report (September 2017) to ensure best practice in medicnes optimisation

  • Continue to work proactively with the prison and NHS England commissioners to ensure that the planned dental suite refurbishment is completed as soon as possible.

  • Complete the planned recruitment of nursing staff intendedto ensure that patients’ needs are consistently met.