Healthcare criticised at immigration removal centre
Doctors are being urged to come forward and help treat detainees held at an immigration centre after a report found health provision lacking.
Kent Refugee Help held a training day in Canterbury and invited medical workers and members of the public to attend in a bid to increase voluntary health support at the Dover Immigration Removal Centre.
According to a report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, responses to Home Office rules that detainees suffering serious conditions should not be locked up were "sporadic".
The paper also stated that the health facility at the centre needed to be expanded and that staff should be trained to recognise and treat signs of trauma and torture.
Sue Powell, a trustee of Kent Refugee Help, said detainees should be able to have access to a second opinion from an independent doctor and those suffering serious trauma should not be locked up.
She added: "There was a case where a detainee was out on bail and despite being scrupulous in reporting to the authorities, he was rearrested prior to being deported.
"He was in the removal centre for quite some time. He had some psychiatric problems, but not allowed his medication. The most they would give him was an aspirin.
"I was extremely worried about him. I would call him sometimes twice a day. He then admitted he had been tempted to take his own life.
"I think this could become more common, with detainees becoming suicidal."
The charity stated that detainees at the centre, where there are 316 men, reported having difficulty accessing primary health care and hospital treatment.
Workers from Kent Refugee Help also said despite Home Office rules that people with serious illnesses – psychological and physical – and those who have been tortured should not be detained, there were many detainees with severe medical conditions still locked up.
A former detainee, who asked not to be named, told KOS Media that when he was at the centre he saw a lot of people with mental health problems.
"They were all put in one area as they were unpredictable," he said.
"Anyone with mental health should not be detained like that."
The 45-year-old also said there was a lack of consistent healthcare and called on the authorities to put something in place.
"One person had a broken leg and he was in a cast. It was meant to get checked but it wasn't and he had the cast on too long," he said.
"Then he was meant to have physiotherapy but there was not enough staff to do it with him.
"His leg was very bad."
He added: "The Home Office is saying one thing but not doing it.
"When I was in the centre there were people there who were really sick."
The Dover Immigration Removal Centre detains male immigrants awaiting either deportation or transferrals to live with relatives in the UK.
Bob Evans from the UKBA's detention services said: "All detainees are seen by a nurse within two hours of arrival and are given an opportunity to see a GP within 24 hours. Referrals for hospital care, either as an emergency, outpatient or inpatient are made in the same way as a GP surgery would in the community.
"Following feedback in the recent HMCIP regarding Dover IRC a new method of communicating and auditing these referrals has been introduced.
"Health care professionals are required to report cases where it is considered that a person's health is being affected by continued detention."
