Financial Fraudster News investigations can reveal Mark Bennett, the interim Director of the under fire privately run prison, which is accused of abject and systemic failure to allow prisoners prescribed medication on arrival back to the prison, following outpatient care at the local NHS hospital despite being prescribed the medication for consumption. In many cases for extreme pain following surgery and routine medical issues. The actions by the prison could amount to breach of prisoners’ human rights.
Since April 2023, NHS England has commissioned Northamptonshire NHS Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) to deliver health services.
GP and dental services are delivered by sub-contractors.
In January 2024, in an unannounced visit by HMP Chief Inspectorate of Prisons, found HMP Peterborough negatively impacted by staff recruitment and retention issues.
The report found that access to healthcare was reasonable. The wait to see a GP was around 3-weeks. There were robust arrangements for patients needing to attend outside hospital appointments, which were overseen by a clinician and patients were rebooked if needed.
In an interview with Financial Fraudster News investigations, UK Prisoner Support Services (a specialist demographic organisation) with permission from Dnite Jeffers from Leeds, a long-term serving prisoner who purportedly stated to have suffered negligence while in the care of His Majesty’s Prison Service Healthcare Department(s) for nearly a decade.
Jeffers a male aged 45 is a former Full Sutton prisoner, prior to his transfer to HMP Peterborough who is now under the care of the prison’s GP, Dr Obi Onuekwusi who is accused of failing to provide Jeffers with the necessary pain relief for a golf size hernia that has reduced Jeffers to a shuffling semi depressed individual.
On 24th June 2024, Jeffers attended the prison’s healthcare to collect medication prescribed by Peterborough Hospital on his return to prison for extreme pain relief following Jeffers’ diagnosis of a debilitating golf ball sized hernia that has reduced his walk to a shuffle.
Jeffers was denied medication prescribed by the hospital despite is excruciating pain without reason. The effect of the decision has left Jeffers in constant extreme pain and distress, a result that gives a true reflection of the operational policies that are systemically put in place at the cost of Jeffers’ health and other prisoners.
The scaled-up costs to the taxpayer run into many thousands of pounds when this particular incident is extrapolated across the prison estate.
A UKPSS spokesperson stated, “Mr Jeffers is in daily pain and has in the past sought help from the General Medical Council, General Pharmaceutical Council and NHFT to impress that without an operation he must be allowed to ingest prescribed medication…each organisation has written back to Jeffers expressing extreme concern that NHS England must step-in and voice concerns to the Ministry of Justice…his [Mr Jeffers] suffering is wholly avoidable and the treatment by HMP Peterborough amounts to torture in the absence of an operation to remove the hernia…Mr Jeffers in failing to receive the prescribed medication is considering his legal options…”
Financial Fraudster News investigations prisons contributor and former HMP prison manager Damian Rust [not his real name] stated, “…this is an altogether perennial operational feature of prison operations, when a prisoner is taken to an outside hospital for diagnosis of a health issue, and then prescribed medication on occasions for severe pain by the hospital…what occurs on arrival back to the prison is concerning…nearly all but a few prisoners are denied access to treatment and their prescribed medication…Mr Jeffers’ situation is the norm and is an indictment on the prison service generally. Ministers of the Crown and Prison Governors/Director alike to allow prisoners like Mr Jeffers to continue to endure pain unduly, which can be neutralised by allowing prescribed medication to be ingested after arrival back to the prison.”
The challenge for the prison service is ensure that correct medication is given to prisoners like Mr Jeffers to avoid debilitating pain to go untreated in the absence of availability of corrective NHS theatre operating capacity.
Financial Fraudster News has asked Sodexo Justice Services, HMP Peterborough, the Ministry of Justice and HM Inspectorate of Prisons for their comment on this article, to date no comments have been received.
