We carried out a focused inspection on 7 February 2018, under section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. This inspection was carried out to follow up on concerns raised during a joint inspection with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in March 2017. We found evidence that essential standards were not being met and issued Requirement Notices to the previous provider of health services.

This report can be found at:

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

We do not currently rate services provided in prisons.

NHS England commission health services at HMP Preston. The contract for the provision of healthcare services at HMP Preston transferred to Spectrum Community Health C.I.C in April 2017. CQC appraised Spectrum of the concerns identified during the joint inspection in March 2017 so that they could address these within the new service provision.

This focused inspection was carried out to confirm that the new provider had made improvements in the areas, which were identified in March 2017 as concerning. This report covers those areas and also additional improvements made since our last inspection.

Our Key findings were as follows:

• Long-term condition management, monitoring and outcomes for patients had improved.

• Patients with dementia had care plans in place and were being offered appropriate support.

• Staff treated patients with dignity and respect; appointment slips were confidential and placed in sealed envelopes.

• The provider’s training matrix showed 92% of staff had been trained in dementia. Overall staff compliance with mandatory training was 95%.

• All informal complaints and incidents were logged and discussed at local and corporate level. We saw where lessons learnt had been shared between the provider, prison and other locations.

• Managers regularly reviewed the full risk register and effective actions had been taken to reduce the risks identified.

There remained areas of practice where improvements had not yet been fully embedded which the provider should continue to address.

• The provider should ensure care planning supports individual patients to manage their own conditions.

• The provider should complete the planned improvements to ensure all prisoners have timely and equitable access to a GP and managers monitor this.

• The provider should continue to develop medicine optimisation auditing procedures and recording to monitor and improve patients care and treatment.