Objectives: To describe and quantify clinical practice consultancy in a prison health care unit so as to evaluate likely differences from a community Health Care Centre. To identify possible training needs when transferring health care staff from one system to another in the light of probable integration of Prison Health Care into the Public Health System.
Methods: A transversal descriptive study was used for three Primary Health Care teams: an urban health centre with a high work load, a rural health centre with a low work load, and the health care unit of a provincial prison (not a mega-prison). Ransom sequential sampling was used to include all the medical activity generated in the consultancy. All activity programmed by the health professional and administrative consultancy was excluded, while efforts were made to locate troubled consultations. Comparisons were made by contrasting differences in proportions.
Results: The Prison Health Care Unit showed higher statistically significant clinical activity in mental health, drug abuse, HIV and HCV infection management and specific Primary Health Care problems (biopsychosocial integration is a therapeutic priority). In both community Health Centres there is more statistically significant activity in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. In the prison environment there is significantly higher troubled consultation.
Conclusions: In a future context of integration of prison health care services into the Public Health Service, training in mental health care (especially addictive disorders) and in HIV-HCV infection management may be necessary for community health centre professionals wishing to transfer to prison health care units. The prison health care professional who wants to work in a public health centre may need training in Internal Medicine (especially Geriatrics). The statistically significant results for health care in prison, Primary Health Care and troubled consultation suggest that the GP plays a more active role in prison than in the community health centre. This should also be borne in mind when the intended integration of Prison Health Care into the Public Health Service takes place.