Taxpayers foot $22m bill for inmates' health

FAIRFAX

PRISON HEALTHCARE: Figures obtained by The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show the average annual health spend per prisoner in the year to June was $2752.

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Figures obtained by The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show the average annual health spend per prisoner in the year to June was $2752. However, advocates for inmates say many are still not getting the treatment they need.

The Corrections Department paid $2.4m for doctors' fees and $1.3m to dentists. Prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines cost another $1.7m.

Spending on prison health services, staff and administration was $16m.

Deborah Alleyne, acting national health manager for Prison Services, said the department had a statutory obligation to provide a frontline health service "reasonably equivalent to that found in the community".

District health boards foot the bill for all specialist and hospital treatment required by prisoners, including operations.

Ms Alleyne said spiralling health costs were partly driven by a boom in the prison population. The average number of people in prison at any one time has increased from 6285 in 2003-04 to 8260 in the past financial year.

Increased drug costs, higher fees for GPs, dentists and other health professionals, and improved screening for health problems had also bumped up health costs.

Rimutaka Prison, which has more than 1000 prisoners, had the biggest medical bill of the country's 19 prisons – $830,000, up from $185,000 in 2002.

Ms Alleyne said many prisoners went to prison in poor health, often caused by poverty and limited access to health services before imprisonment.

Women prisoners tended to have higher health needs than male inmates, she said.

Arohata Women's Prison in Tawa, which has only 154 beds, had nine inmates admitted to hospital in the past year, and a total primary health spend of $1400 per prisoner, compared with $799 for each Rimutaka prisoner.

A national survey of prisoners' health in 2006 found most inmates were overweight, smoked and suffered chronic illnesses, including asthma, diabetes, heart disease and depression.

One in three had been diagnosed as having a communicable disease, and two-thirds had suffered a head injury.

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said this year he had heard of cases of criminals in need of dental work choosing to commit a crime to get "free treatment" in jail.

However, Ms Alleyne said prisoners did not jump the queue in the public system, but were assessed according to need.

Prison Fellowship national director Robin Gunston said basic healthcare in prison was adequate but some aspects, particularly mental health and dentistry, were neglected.

"I know one man who came out of prison needing very expensive treatment, who has been hit with a bill for $3000. That will take him years to pay off."

- © Fairfax NZ News