The chaotic nature of prison is detrimental to the health care of inmates, delegates at the Health Protection Agency's conference in Warwick this week were told. The frequent transfer of prisoners around the system has led to a lack of continuity in care.

“HIV patients are transferred from one prison to another, but their retroviral drugs don't go with them,” delegate Tim Moss, a consultant at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, told the conference. Discontinuous treatment meant that these patients were developing resistance to their antiretrovirals. “It is nothing short of negligence,” he said.

It …