Drugs for diabetes, cancer, epilepsy and mental illness are being denied to people held in police cells after they are arrested, according to a shocking new report.
Suspects detained in custody suites are even having emergency care withheld as a “form of punishment”, according to the study shared exclusively with The Independent.
The report has sparked calls for healthcare for those in custody to be brought under the remit of the NHS, amid claims that basic standards are not being met by the private companies that currently provide it.
Deborah Cohen, chief executive of the charity Inquest, which represents families whose loved ones have died in custody, said the report is “deeply concerning” and urged ministers to respond before the situation results in “catastrophe”.
“This is about the denial of life-protecting medication,” she said. “There is the ever-present risk of death and harm. It shines a light on the standards of healthcare in police custody suites.
“This report lays bare many of the concerns Inquest has had for decades around the standards of care afforded to detainees in police custody. The reality of this, denying people medication that is life-protecting, does hold the risk of death and serious harm.”
The news comes only weeks after the government triggered “Operation Safeguard”, a measure that allows the prison service to hold people overnight in police cells when jails are close to capacity.
Researchers from Newcastle, Northumbria and Durham universities went through hundreds of hours of police logs and spent long periods in custody suites interviewing staff and detainees during 2022 and 2023. They found numerous examples of patients being denied prescription medication for diabetes, arthritis, cancer, epilepsy, and PTSD.
Researchers claim there was “scepticism and distrust of detained persons’ medical histories” among custody staff.
Gethin Rees, the study’s principal author, said: “The thing that struck me is … it’s a really important part of criminal justice, but it is largely ignored.
“We are talking about the most vulnerable people in our society. The way society should be measured is the way we treat our most vulnerable, so it’s vital we explore [this] … We found people wanted to get to prison because police custody was seen as worse than prison.”
Differences in the policies of healthcare providers covering custody meant there was a “postcode lottery” in relation to the healthcare provided and what medications were allowed, the research showed.
In some suites, people were not allowed prescribed medication that was not in its original labelled box, while in others, staff did not allow any medication for the first six hours – a rule that breaches the current guidelines.
Dr Mwenza Blell, one of the researchers who spent hours inside custody suites, said: “The option to trust people just does not seem to be real for healthcare professionals in custody. The scepticism partially derives from a risk-averse culture, driven by fears that detained persons are ‘drug-seeking’ and looking to ‘top up’ for free.”
Stephanie Mulhern, who interviewed people with experience of custody, told The Independent that one patient she met who had been denied prescription methadone had experienced such bad withdrawal symptoms that they admitted to crimes they did not commit so that they could be remanded to prison, where they would be allowed their prescription again.
“People were so desperate to ease their suffering that they then ended up relapsing and scoring drugs, and [were] forced back into a cycle of committing further crime,” she added.
A core issue raised in the report was the lack of access to healthcare professionals in police stations, which means that detainees are less able to obtain healthcare and medication when they need it.
Custody healthcare is commissioned by police forces and is largely provided by private companies, which the report suggests leads to “strategic” cost-cutting.
Dr Blell said placing the provision of healthcare in custody under the remit of the NHS “would be useful”, adding: “I began to wonder how they know what standards should be.”
The Home Office was contacted for comment. A department source said the report was being reviewed with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to see if any issues require addressing nationally.
