Decision Report 201200516

Summary

Mr C, who is a prisoner, complained that the prison health centre unreasonably refused to issue him with a medical marker excusing him from work. He said that he had suffered a stroke the month before arriving in prison and had been signed off work in the community on medical grounds. When the board responded to his complaint they said that, based on his recent test results, they found no grounds upon which to excuse him from work in prison.

We took independent advice from one of our medical advisers, who reviewed Mr C's records and noted that he had had a number of tests relevant to his fitness to work. As none of these revealed any cause for concern, the adviser said that the prison health centre's decision not to excuse Mr C from work was appropriate. In light of this advice, we concluded that Mr C's fitness to work had been appropriately assessed and we did not uphold the complaint.