A mother of an inmate at Dodds Prison is livid after she was advised by a prison official to seek private medical care for her son because the St Philip jail did not have a doctor on call.
The woman told the Saturday Sun it resulted in her paying a doctor $300 to go into the penal institution to examine her son. She said that doctor also informed her that because she had gone “private”, she may also have to pay for further diagnostic intervention.
However, when contacted about this situation, acting Superintendent at Dodds DeCarlo Payne said this information was “inaccurate” as he disclosed that there were three doctors at the prison and they had seen over 1 200 inmates between January and December last year.
The mother said her son, who is serving a sentence, had been constantly complaining to her about a pain in his stomach since July.
Pain intensified
“He told me he informed the prison officers that he wanted to see a doctor and all they were doing was writing down the information, but he never got to see the doctor.”
She said she got concerned when her son complained to her that the pain had intensified and he still had not seen a doctor.
“So I called the prison [on January 23] and someone in Medic answered the phone. I told her my son is up there in your custody and was asking to see a doctor for the longest time and up to now he hasn’t seen a doctor and he is having a pain.
“She said to me, ‘Well Ma’am, there is no doctor in here. What I would advise you to do is to seek a private doctor’. I said to her if I got to go to a private doctor, if I would have to pay she said ‘yes’. I asked her which doctor they are dealing with and she gave me the names of two doctors. I told her okay, I will make an appointment for him to see a doctor. She tell me that is the best thing because right now there is no doctor in there and no dentist.”
The woman said the doctor visited her son and recommended that he receive an ultrasound, which she would have to pull her pockets and pay for also.
Another mother told the Saturday Sun that her son also complained to her that he had been asking for several months to see a doctor after developing a rash on his skin, but this had not materialised.
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