An Indigenous prisoner used a pencil sharpener and tweezers to treat an ingrown toenail after delays in seeing a doctor to assess the painful condition, with the Victorian ombudsman criticising the healthcare provided to First Nations people in custody.
In a report into the healthcare for Indigenous prisoners, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, the ombudsman said the lack of input from First Nations people into the culturally informed policies was having a “devastating” effect on their health outcomes.
It concluded the current system was failing to meet the needs of Aboriginal people, which the ombudsman said was “wrong and discriminatory”.
The report found some prisoners did not have immediate access to programs to tackle their drug use, such as methadone for opioid-use disorder, and had ongoing medications abruptly stopped.
The ombudsman documented an example of an Indigenous prisoner who had been attempting to see a podiatrist and had made multiple requests for an appointment over a period of weeks.
After an appointment was confirmed, but not for several months, he said he took the matter into his own hands and “made a pretty good mess there of the toe”, the report said. He told the investigation that when he requested a Band-Aid the prison officers were unable to provide one.
“They went and had a look, they didn’t even have any Band-Aids there,” the prisoner said, according to the report.
In another case, a female prisoner had fallen ill with an infectious and life-threatening illness that she believes she contracted at the prison. She said she did not think there was any point asking prison officers for assistance.
According to the report, another person noticed she was “so hot she smelt like a burnt cheeseburger”. The friend then called “at least six codes [requests for help]” before staff attended and the woman was in hospital for nearly a week.
The outgoing ombudsman, Deborah Glass, whose 10-year term ends this month, said the experiences of First Nations people were often missing from discussions about policies that affected them – despite commitments from every level of government about Indigenous-led solutions.
“Some of the things we heard were deeply confronting and distressing,” she said.
“We heard about a yearning for cultural connection. About the devastating impact a lack of cultural and family connection in prison can have, and what a huge difference it makes when they do receive cultural support with their healthcare needs.”
The report made five recommendations, which the Department of Justice and Community Safety has accepted in principle, subject to funding.
The recommendations include working with Aboriginal-controlled community organisations to design and deliver health services in custody that were “culturally safe” for Indigenous people. The report also recommended the department consider how current health contracts for prison can be reformed to provide oversight that is more “culturally safe” and responsive to Indigenous people, and invest in education and training to boost the number of Indigenous health workers in the state.
The ombudsman visited three Victorian prisons – the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the Melbourne Assessment Prison and the Ravenhall Correctional Centre – and interviewed representatives from the Department of Justice and Community and Safety and healthcare providers.
Last year, the Victorian government took over healthcare from private operators in women’s prisons. The ombudsman said it was too early say whether the public prison’s new healthcare provider was working but the change was made “without meaningful input from key Aboriginal community representatives”.
