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Munroe expects 90 per cent decrease in outpatient care when prison facility built

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe.

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe.

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune staff Reporter

jrussell@tribnemdia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said the Public Hospital Authority does not like prisoners receiving care at Princess Margaret Hospital –– one reason medical facilities will be built at the Department of Corrections.

He said he expects a 90 per cent decrease in outpatient care for inmates when the facility is completed, with only the most severe health issues treated outside that facility.

“Every time we have to transport an inmate from BDOCS to the hospital, in some cases, they have to shut off entire wards depending on who it is,” Mr Munroe said. “The Public Hospitals Authority and the Ministry of Health do not like us transporting inmates to their medical facility. So it’s proposed that there will be a medical facility at the correctional facility for everything other than the most serious cases.”

“The medical facility will be made available to the Public Hospital Authorities and the Ministry of Health. So instead of us taking them out to the hospital, the hospital will make arrangements when they have treatments to render or what not to come in and provide it.

“Most of what they go to the hospital for, if there were a proper facility, they would not have to be transported to the hospital.”

Mr Munroe also said an inmate who recently died in prison sustained injuries to his head.

He said the victim’s cellmate is a suspect in the matter.

“There is great urgency at this moment as these deaths are attesting to an urgent need for this facility to be up,” he said, adding that the dead inmate had mental challenges.

In May, Mr Munroe said the Davis administration expanded construction plans for the BDOCs to include a correctional institution, administrative, housing and medical facility. The project will cost $90m.

Comments

TalRussell 1 year, 3 months ago

What percentage of the available 100 students spots is Bahamian at the Western Atlantic University School of Medicine?

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