Understanding the Scale and Nature of Avoidable Harm in Prison Healthcare.

A mixed methods study consisting of three project phases:

• Nominal group work with stakeholders and analysis of existing incident reports to develop consensus on a definition of avoidable harm in prison healthcare
• Case note review of 15,000 patient records from 18 UK prisons, collecting data on possible cases of avoidable harm, to enable estimation of the incidence of avoidable harm in prison healthcare and to quantify, describe and classify the nature and severity of harm.
• Qualitative interviews with stakeholders to gather perspectives on the nature of avoidable harm, focusing on participants’ experiences of harm in prison healthcare to identify any factors that could reduce the incidence of avoidable harm.

Data from this study will be used to ascertain the scale and nature of avoidable harm in prison healthcare and identify contributing factors which may be addressed to improve patient safety.