Prison Medicine: a new age

Looking to the future...

The NSW prison medical service has throughout its life reflected and, at

times, influenced the wider medical profession. The intensifying professionalisation of medicine through the 20 th century was mirrored in the changes occurring in the prison medical service. A wider appreciation of the value of related professional staff, such as nurses, was one sign. From around the middle of the 20 th century, prisons began to employ professional nursing staff, replacing the system of assigning inmates to nursing duties.

Most prisons also formalised their relationships with another community institution: the local hospital. For many inmates, the experience of ill health required being transported to a mainstream hospital for treatment.

Following the 1978 Nagle Commission’s report into the NSW Prison Service, a new structure for the provision of medical services in prisons was created. With the formation of the Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network in 2011, management and provision of medical services was standardised and further professionalised across the state.

This development represented a world-first, and continues to be seen as a model for those wishing to provide excellence in prison health care.