BackThe Ombudsman investigated, upon his own initiative, three issues arising from the Department for Correctional Services’ (the department) handling of a prisoner with type 1 diabetes. The investigation was instigated on the basis of information received from the Office of the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner (HCSCC).
On 8 February 2017, the prisoner was transferred from Port Lincoln Prison to Port Augusta Prison and shortly after approached South Australian Prison Health Service (SAPHS) about high blood sugar levels. On 21 February 2017, SAPHS forwarded a medical instruction to the General Manager of the Port Augusta Prison and requested that he consider the prisoner being managed in a facility where he could have insulin three times a day or, alternatively, give SAPHS staff access to him three times a day. SAPHS continued to raise concerns with prison management about the failure to facilitate doses of insulin three times daily. The Port Augusta Prison did not accommodate the three times daily doses. The prisoner was ultimately transferred to another prison on 28 March 2017.
The department and the Department for Health and Wellbeing have a Joint Systems Protocol (the Joint Systems Protocol) which provides guidance on the shared care for prisoners requiring complex case management. The department also has a standard operating procedure (SOP 001A) which deals with prisoner admission and case management.
The Ombudsman considered following three issues:
1. Whether the department wrongly failed to comply with the Joint Systems Protocol and SOP 001A.
2. Whether the department unreasonably delayed taking action following receipt of a medical instruction from SAPHS regarding the prisoner.
3. Whether the department’s failure to maintain records in accordance with the State Records Act 1997 was contrary to law.
Please see the section below to download the full article and the Ombudsmans final report.
Source: Ombudsman South Australia
