When someone is taken into police custody, they don't lose their basic rights , including access to healthcare. But new research suggests that, for many people detained by police in England, getting the care they need can be anything but straightforward.
Author
- Gethin Rees
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Newcastle University
Our research investigated healthcare provision inside police custody suites and uncovered a troubling reality: people held in custody often face long delays in receiving vital treatments. In some cases, they're denied their medication altogether - even when they have serious health conditions.
This isn't just a bureaucratic hiccup. These delays and denials can pose real risks to people's health and wellbeing, especially for those already living with chronic conditions or acute mental health issues.
Healthcare inside police custody isn't always provided by the NHS. Instead, police forces across England commission providers through a competitive tender process . These providers then employ healthcare professionals who are responsible for treating detainees and responding to emergencies.
But our research found that the system doesn't always work as it should. In many cases, the healthcare professionals are not based full-time at custody suites. Instead, one professional may be expected to cover several sites, often dozens of miles apart. It's not unusual for a healthcare professional to be responsible for multiple suites spread over 50 miles or more.
That means when someone in custody needs medical attention - say, for prescribed medication - the healthcare professional may not be there. And even if they are, they're likely to be balancing demands from several locations and having to try to prioritise those people that need attention most urgently. This triage process, while necessary under current conditions, can result in significant and dangerous delays.
Delays, denials and disbelief
Delays are often compounded by another issue: distrust.
Our data - including interviews with healthcare staff, police officers and people with lived experience - showed that many custody staff are deeply sceptical about detainees' claims regarding their medication. There's a strong concern that detainees might be seeking drugs or exaggerating their needs, which leads to staff adopting a highly cautious approach.
In practice, this means that detainees are often made to wait at least six hours before receiving any medication - because they need to wait until they can be sure that any drugs taken before arrest will have metabolised. This practice is aimed at reducing the risk of overdose, but has been criticised by experts, including the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine , a charity founded by the Royal College of Physicians. It also paints every detainee as dishonest by default.
Even when people bring their own prescribed medicine, officers and staff may refuse to administer it unless it's in its original box with the full pharmacy label - a condition that many can't meet, especially if they were arrested suddenly.
One person we interviewed described being detained while undergoing treatment for cancer. Despite explaining his situation, he was left without his medication.
I can live with not having food for a couple of hours, but you can't live with not having your medication when you're due it … They had to take me to hospital to make sure I was all right.
His experience was not an outlier. Across interviews and custody logs, we saw repeated examples of vulnerable people missing doses of medication - whether for mental health, diabetes, or pain management - because the system either didn't believe them or wasn't equipped to help them in time.
Closing the care gap
Based on our findings, we made a series of recommendations to improve healthcare in police custody. Two are critical to ensure that detainees receive timely access to essential medications.
First, every custody suite should have a dedicated healthcare professional embedded on site. This would significantly reduce delays in treatment, ensuring that detainees are promptly assessed and cared for by qualified clinicians.
Second, standardise the list of available medications across all providers police custody healthcare. A universal list of approved treatments would ensure consistency and fairness, no matter where someone is detained.
These recommendations have already been echoed by the Independent Custody Visitors Association and the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine . Implementing them could make a real difference to people's safety and dignity during custody.
Police custody is often a place of crisis . It receives some of society's most vulnerable people - those experiencing mental illness , substance use issues, homelessness , or poverty.
These are people who already face barriers to healthcare in daily life. Detention shouldn't become another one.
Timely, appropriate, and compassionate care isn't just something that is nice to have. It's a human right. And right now, in too many custody suites, that right is being denied .
Gethin Rees receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.
