Lack of diabetes expertise in prison alarms coroner

Colin Lovett died by suicide at HMP The Verne in October 2022

Prison workers' "lack of understanding" of how to manage diabetes or problems relating to it could have contributed to an inmate's suicide, a coroner said.

Colin Lovett, 53, was found unresponsive at HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset, on 29 October 2022.

Lovett was insulin-dependent after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1989 and Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin found prison staff had never received training relating to hypoglycaemic or hyperglycaemic attacks.

Mrs Griffin said the prison's healthcare department only operated between 07:30 and 18:00 daily and outside those times staff were reliant on calling paramedics or other healthcare staff.

She said she worried that the same situation will be the same at other prisons.

"There is a balance to be struck with training non-medical individuals in diagnosing medical symptoms… However the head of healthcare at [the prison] stated there would be benefit in providing an awareness to Prison Service staff of the impact on prisoners of long-term conditions, such as diabetes," Mrs Griffin said.

Her concern about that wider issue will be sent to the health secretary Wes Streeting and HM Prison and Probation Service.

A jury, which concluded Lovett died by suicide, was told his medical causes of death were an insulin overdose and hypertensive and ischaemic heart disease.

It found that he had access to insulin in his cell and that "possibly contributed more than minimally to his death".

It added that the "inadequacy of risk management and support at HMP The Verne possibly contributed more than minimally to his death".

The Ministry of Justice was approached to comment.