Dear Editor,
I was pleased to read this piece highlighting the lack of education on prison populations, and hope that it will be read by those who wield editing rights to our medical school curricula.
However, I must disagree with the statement that “not all medical students will work directly with prison populations in their future clinical practice”, and would challenge this as a reason for its absence from the curriculum. I would be surprised to meet any NHS medical professional who has not seen and treated a person who is incarcerated.
Furthermore, the social determinants of health which unfavourably apply to prison populations may also apply to populations of people who are not incarcerated. People who have previously been incarcerated or are at risk of incarceration also have unique health needs. Learning to manage and subvert the challenges faced by these populations when interacting with healthcare will be of benefit to clinicians and their patients.
Developing the skills and confidence to manage incarcerated patients and fostering an appreciation for the social determinants of health will be valuable to medical students and trainees of all grades.
All doctors will work with “prison populations”