Healthcare staff working in London have given the thumbs-up to the national clinical system for prisons, saying it is helping them to deliver improved quality and continuity of care for their patients.

HMP Feltham was the final prison in both London and England to deploy the new system, going live towards the end of March. Ivan Calder, Head of Healthcare at Feltham, explains: "The change has been enormous and it's still early days for us. We are looking forward to having up-to-date health information about our prisoners readily accessible wherever and whenever it is needed.

"The use of real time data across the prison estate is already improving the quality of healthcare delivery, and the system has enabled us to drive forward better person centred care."

Healthcare staff working within prisons face massive challenges day-to-day due to the complex, pressured and constantly shifting environment. It is estimated that about 10% of the prison population consult a member of the healthcare team daily. There are also a high transfer rate of prisoners and a massive volume of repeat prescriptions.

The programme has helped to create a culture shift within prison healthcare from, in some cases, using paper records to adopting a computerised system.

HMP Belmarsh prison

Dr. James Whitticase, a GP who works across the HMP Belmarsh and HMP YOI Isis prisons, explains the changes across the prison. "When TPP SystmOne Prison was introduced to HMP Belmarsh a large change management program was instigated.

"During the introduction healthcare staff were understandably anxious at the thought of a new IT system that was not only to be used in medical consultations but one that touched every area of healthcare.

"Staff anxieties were however unfounded as following a comprehensive training program followed by a high level of support the overwhelming feeling of all staff was that the system was both necessary and vital to enable the delivery of a gold standard healthcare service."

The chosen system, TPP SystmOne Prison, was already being rolled out within the North, Midlands and East of England as part of the CSC Alliance's local service provider contract with NHS Connecting for Health.

The system is based on a leading GP system and has been specially tailored to meet the needs of prison healthcare staff. The system includes specific functionality for areas such as: admitting prisoners; transferring prisoners; prescribing and medication administration; clinical templates; administration; and security.

"TPP SystmOne Prison has enabled healthcare staff to have appropriate access to clinical details of patients," explains James. "This unique functionality not only spans all healthcare services within a single prison but that also includes those of the other prisons where the patient has stayed."

HMP YOI Isis prison

Having a national clinical IT system means that healthcare staff now only need to get used to one system. This is making user training easier, supporting a standardised way of working and enabling the sharing of good practice.

"As more and more prisons become familiar and competent in the use of TPP SystmOne Prison we are starting to see patients from other prisons arriving with comprehensive records," adds James.

"The system enables the instantaneous transfer of patient records so that staff are able to quickly and appropriately address important medical conditions and treatment regimes making a patient's first night within the prison both safer and importantly less stressful."