Hunger strikers are not properly monitored at detention centre, doctor says
BMJ 2005; 331 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.331.7510.178-a (Published 21 July 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;331:178
- Jerome Burne
- London
Asylum seekers at a detention centre in the United Kingdom are not being given adequate access to emergency care, a doctor recently called in to attend to two Zimbabwean detainees on hunger strike said last week. He also said that claims by detainees being held at Harmondsworth Detention and Deportation Centre, west London, that they were tortured in Zimbabwe do not seem to have been properly investigated.
“The first man I saw had been without food for 37 days….He was emaciated, his blood pressure was 90/60 [mm Hg], his pulse 130 (sitting), and he clearly needed emergency treatment,” said Frank Arnold, who is a specialist in wound care and a volunteer worker at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.
The man, known as M, was protesting about being sent back to Zimbabwe, where he claimed his life would be in danger.
Dr Arnold, invited in and speaking at the patients' request, said that the notes he was given were “inadequate.” They contained …