Weekly OPDs to provide special health care for prison inmates

Pune, October 22, 2017:

Team of doctors from medical colleges, district hospitals to arrange 3-hour visits starting Nov 1

The director of health services (DHS) and the director of medical education and research (DMER) will be coming together to provide specialised medical care to inmates of prisons across the state. According to recent orders issued by the DHS, a team of specialised doctors from medical colleges and district hospitals will arrange a three-hour OPD in their respective district prisons from November 1 this year.

Orders were issued by the DHS on October 10 to all district civil surgeons in Pune, Thane, Sindhudurg, Satara, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Amravati, Washim and so on. There are 54 jails across Maharashtra state central prisons, 31 district prisons, along with several open jails, women’s jails, etc. These house as many as 30,000 inmates of which 70 per cent are under-trials.

For the male prisoners, the team of doctors would include a physician/ medical officer, a skin specialist a psychiatrist and an orthopaedist. For females, a gynaecologist and a paediatrician will be among the team.

State prisons already avail of doctors from the public health department for inmates suffering from general weakness and diseases. Much of this service, especially for illness that does not require surgery, conducted via tele-medicine.

Elaborating on the plan, DHS Dr Satish Pawar, said, “The major problem for inmates to avail consulting from super-speciality doctors is the non-availability of police escorts. Several times, there are various festivals going on and there is a delay in taking prisoners for hospital visits. Weekly OPD clinics within the prison will ensure that the inmates get treatment from specialists without any delay which may cause complications. Inmates who need surgeries will be taken to the nearest government hospitals and medical colleges.”

“We have written to the DMER and they have agreed to provide speciality doctors from both medical and non-medical fields as per the requirement. The district civil surgeon team will also team up with the doctors from medical colleges for this OPD.”

Bhushan Kumar Upadhyay, director general of police (prisons), agreed, saying, “This is a welcome move, given the massive number of inmates in the prisons. We had already requested the government earlier to carry out such a plan for their benefit. We will cooperate with health officials and provide all required facilities. Jail officials, too, will cooperate with them in every manner possible.”

Dr R K Shelke, district civil surgeon (Pune), said, “I have spoken to the DHS regarding this. We are already providing dental and skin specialists to jail inmates. Now, according to the demands of the jail authorities, the list of speciality doctors will be finalised.

Those which are not available with us will be provided from government medical colleges for the OPD. The OPD visits will be organised in such a way that they do not disturb the functioning of the hospital and reports of the team visits, including details of the number of prisoners examined, will be sent to the DHS every month.” Pune Mirror