Decision Report 201301743

Summary

Mr C, who was diagnosed with a personality disorder, had some of his medications reduced and stopped soon after entering prison (although he was still on one anti-psychotic medication). He was then transferred to a different prison, where he raised concerns about his medication and asked to be put back on his original medication. Mr C's lawyers also wrote to the prison and his psychiatrist, asking for him to be returned to this medication. Mr C complained about the board's failure to return him to his previous medication.

The board said that Mr C's medication had been assessed on several occasions, including by his psychiatrist from the community (who had prescribed his previous medications), and his medication was prescribed and reviewed as recommended by the psychiatrists.

After taking independent advice from an experienced psychiatrist, we did not uphold Mr C's complaint. We found that Mr C's medication had been appropriately reviewed by psychiatrists, and there was no clinical reason to restart Mr C's previous medications, particularly as several of these medications were addictive and not for long-term use. We also found that Mr C's psychiatrist from the community had reviewed Mr C while he was in a previous prison, and was in agreement with his current medication.