HMP Littlehey

Updated 1 May 2024

HMP Littlehey is a large category C training prison near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. Holding more than 1,200 prisoners across a large campus, the prison’s principal purpose is to hold adult men convicted of a sexual offence. The prison is operated by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.

Health services at HMP Littlehey are commissioned by NHS England and provided by Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. They are registered with the CQC to provide the following regulated activities: Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury, and Diagnostic and Screening procedures.

Updated 1 May 2024

We carried out an announced focused inspection of the healthcare services provided by Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) at HMP Littlehey on 24 April 2024.

Following our previous joint inspection with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in September 2023, we found that the provider’s management of medicines required improvement. We issued a requirement notice in relation to Regulation12 of the Health and Social Care Act, Safe Care and Treatment. The last inspection report can be found at:

Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Littlehey by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons 4-14 September 2023 (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)

The purpose of this focused inspection was to determine if the provider was now meeting the legal requirement of the Notice we issued in December 2023.

We do not rate providers of health and social care services who operate in prisons.

OUR FINDINGS

Overall, we found the provider had implemented effective measures to address the issues we had identified during our previous inspection. The management of medicines had improved; room temperature monitoring was now undertaken where medicines were held, medicines contained in medical emergency bags were checked weekly, pharmaceutical bins were better secured and not overflowing, and security had strengthened in the area where controlled drugs were dispensed.