Prison medicine: a patient's perspective.

n he nurse officer took a step back and punched the prisoner in the face while he was still sitting in the chair." These are not the words of a do gooding penal reformer or the claims of an embittered relative. They were spoken under oath from the witness box of Alloa Sheriff Court in August 1992 by Dr James MacGregor. He is a local general practitioner, who with his three colleagues has been contracted by the Scottish Home and Health Department to deliver health care to the 600 prisoners in Glenochil Prison near Stirling, from where I write. As someone who has experienced the penal system north and south of Hadrian's Wall, I found the actions of Dr MacGregor to be as unique as they are refreshingly different. I have little hesitation in believing that had the assault described by Dr MacGregor, for which the nurse officer was convicted, taken place in the presence of a doctor employed by the Prison Medical Service (PMS) in England the opening paragraph of this article would have been worded differently.