1.1 Levels of health‑care services in prison It is obvious that the prison itself cannot cater for all the possible health‑care needs of prisoners. This is particularly true of specialist services. Health‑care services that cannot be provided in prison should be arranged in co‑ordination with nearby community hospitals. The substantive section of the 3rd General Report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) outlines the organisation of health‑care services in a prison setting.5 Health‑care services in prison should, as a minimum, be able to provide: X regular general practitioner and specialist consultations, X supervised outpatient treatment, X dental care, X an infrmary, X direct support of a fully‑equipped service from either civil or prison hospital, X interventions for emergency situations. There is a growing trend of integrating prison health care into community health‑care services. This development has been seen as a step in the right direction by the Council of Europe. When the prison health‑care service relies on specialist care from providers outside the prison, the availability of these services may become an issue. The prison service needs to make sure that the working times and qualifcations of attending physicians meet the prison’s needs. The presence of nursing staf should make it possible to provide all necessary nursing care. For example, medication should preferably always be distributed by nursing staf. If that is not possible, the authorities should at least draw up a list of medication that must always be distributed only under the supervision of the medical staf, such as psychotropic and antiviral medication as a minimum. In cases when there is no medical staf available on the premises, at night‑time and weekends, the staf should be trained in providing frst aid. As a rule, a doctor should be on call for emer‑ gency situations. 5. CPT/Inf (2012)21. Prison health care and medical ethics Page 10