Prison health service

This page covers opportunities in the prison health service and the skills and experience you will need to be successful in getting in.

What opportunities are there?

Most doctors work within prison healthcare as a part of a specialty training rotation, but there are also limited opportunities for part-time and full-time roles.  Most of these opportunities are in primary care but experience in communicable diseases, drug abuse or mental health is also very useful. Supporting prisoner rehabilitation can be a challenging but rewarding position.

  • The main attributes you will need are:

    • resilience
    • communication skills
    • teamwork 

  • It is important to be proactive in gaining experience in primary care, emergency medicine, communicable diseases, mental health or treating drug abuse.  You could also consider a postgraduate course in prison medicine as these teach relevant clinical skills as well as addressing ethical issues, and can be useful.

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