THE governor of HMP Glenochil has called for the reintroduction of hospital units within the Scottish prison system.

Nigel Ironside, head administrator at the Clacks facility, said the current estate lacks the ability to house severe or terminally-will prisoners One in five of Glenochil’s 600-plus population is aged over 50, with 15 prisoners requiring assisted daily living.

Furthermore, up to 70 inmates would need some sort of assistance in the event of an emergency evacuation.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) currently has no plans to bring back dedicated hospital units across its estate.

But Mr Ironside suggests the service should work with the NHS and COSLA to establish regional model which can better manage acute and chronic healthcare issues as well as palliative care.

He said: “We’re not just talking about old men, of course. There are young offenders who have terminal illness and there are also female offenders who have terminal illness, so how do you manage that mix appropriately in an arena that provides secure but dignified care?

“For some terminal cases, they might be terminal for quite a long period of time and it might be that it’s appropriate to keep them in this environment before they would go to another environment when their health starts to deteriorate.

“What is very obvious to us is that managing them in our current prison estate, which is designed really for maximising spaces and was designed on that premise, is not appropriate and we can’t adjust it to fix it.

“So something different – a new design – in an appropriate location is really what we’re talking about.

“[Something such as] a shared collaborative facility that allows secure care in an environment that is care-orientated but also has a fairly strong security element to it.”