NHS England and NHS Improvement have signed a new national agreement with health tech supplier Visionable to provide its video platform to connect hospitals and prisoners.
The platform was rolled out initially in March to support one prison and it will now be adopted wider to 114 prisons and young offender institutions, 15 secure children’s homes, and five immigration removal centres.
It means a prisoner can use the technology to speak remotely with a consultant by using a secure laptop that can only be activated with a remote key held by the prison’s own healthcare team, who take the laptop to the prisoner’s location.
The member of staff then uses the secure Visionable platform to join a virtual room, in which they connect to a specific consultant at the hospital at an arranged time. The laptop is then placed in front of the prisoner who can virtually talk to and see their consultant.
Once the consultation has finished, the consultant can then talk to hospital staff and advise them of necessary next steps.
The laptop and software have been configured so that it cannot be used for any other communication purpose.
Alan Lowe, Visionable chief executive, said: “This particular project, envisioned before the coronavirus pandemic, is an important expansion of how the NHS has been using remote video technology to transform pathways, and will result in significant efficiency and security gains for organisations involved. But it also demonstrates how clinicians can be brought to the individual, regardless of their location.”
