Impact of Covid-19 on delivery and receipt of prison healthcare in the UK and implications for health inequalities: a mixed methods study

We will produce robust evidence on the impact of Covid-19 on the delivery and receipt of prison healthcare in the UK, alongside an understanding of whether health inequalities have widened due to the pandemic. This will inform immediate clinical practice, commissioning and policy decisions at a regional and national level, in addition to providing planning UK wide recommendations for the recovery period. The application was written in response to the UKRI identified priority topic area "social impact upon vulnerable groups: the prison population". Our 12-month, mixed-methods study comprises three stages. First, we will undertake a scoping review of the literature to identify what is known already about Covid-19 and prison healthcare. Second, in a qualitative study we will interview 45 participants (people who have been in prison, prison healthcare staff and prison decision-makers) to explore their observations and beliefs about how and in what ways the pandemic has impacted on prison healthcare. Third, we will conduct an interrupted time series analysis to assess and compare change in recorded prison healthcare activity before, during and potentially after Covid-19. This analysis will utilise anonymised healthcare records from 13 prisons in England. The findings from all three stages will be formally integrated in a workshop. We will produce outputs for prison healthcare decision makers, clinicians, people currently or previously in prison and academics. Our well-connected team and existing prison healthcare research infrastructure means we can produce timely recommendations and directly influence national policy and practice as our findings emerge.