The Offender Health IT programme has been responsible for completing the roll-out of a national clinical IT system to all prisons (both public sector and contracted-out) across England, plus immigration removal centres (IRCs) where healthcare is commissioned by the NHS.

Today, the national clinical IT system is being used in all 133 English prisons and three IRCs by more than 7000 healthcare staff. The system is based on a leading GP system and has been specially tailored to meet the needs of prisons, encompassing functionality in areas such as: admitting prisoners; transferring prisoners; prescribing and medication administration; clinical templates; administration; and security.

Having a single, national clinical IT system for prisons delivers a number of benefits. As well as ensuring healthcare staff have 24/7 access to prisoners' medical records it also provides them with a quick, easy and secure way to share prisoners' health records between prisons as prisoners transfer. More on why a national clinical IT system for prisons was needed.

Since the end of the roll-out, the scope of the programme has increased to cover not just prisons but other areas of the clinical justice system.

The Offender Health IT work is in support of a cross-Government Health and Criminal Justice Programme being led by the Offender Health directorate at the Department of Health. This aims to improve health and social care outcomes for adults and children in contact with the criminal justice system, focusing on early intervention, liaison and diversion, and is a key part of the drive to reduce re-offending and health inequalities.

Current priorities for the Offender Health IT programme are as follows:

• Progressing improvements to the national clinical IT system for prisons, including the deployment of contracted releases and other enhanced functionality.
• Supporting local NHS organisations and prison healthcare staff to use the full functionality of the national clinical IT system and exploit its benefits.
• Supporting the take-up of other national systems and services in prisons, and the adoption of smartcards.
• Investigating potential improvements in health  information flows between prisons and other care delivery settings.
• Investigating  IT support for healthcare delivery in other areas of the criminal justice system such as police custody suites and liaison and diversion schemes as the business requirements for these areas become clear.