Inequality on the inside: Using hospital data to understand the key health care issues for women in prison (Nuffield Trust, 19 July 2022)

Summary

Is good-quality health care being provided for women in prison? As the government proceeds with plans to build 500 more prison places for women, this new Nuffield Trust analysis uses HES data to look at women prisoners' use of hospital services, finding that they face a series of challenges and risks in prison because of barriers to accessing health and care services.

Content

Key findings

• Pregnant women in prison are more likely to experience preterm labour than women in the general population.
• There are no official data on the number of women in prison who have children. Our work can fill in some of this gap. In 2019/20, 212 women had given birth in hospital within the four years before going to prison, 109 within the two years before.
• Access to hospital services is poor and this is a long-term issue.
• Hospital data highlight the complex needs of women in prison, particularly around trauma and substance misuse.
• Substance misuse plays a part in a significant proportion of hospital admissions by women in prison.
• Women’s sexual and reproductive health care needs are not talked about openly and symptoms of normal changes to the body, such as the menopause, as well as conditions such as endometriosis, are not well understood or managed.

Key recommendations

• Ensure women have access to good-quality, understandable and targeted health care information.
• Commit to better data collection to inform planning and address inequality.
• Better understand and address the needs of those with children as an urgent priority ahead of the new prison places.
• Acknowledge and address the range of reasons why hospital appointments might be missed.