BEHIND BARS
JAIL HOUSE DOC
Recent years have seen a growth in the number of older prisoners, which has created a unique set of challenges for GP turned prison doctor Amanda Brown
by JOANNA MOORHEAD
Inside story Amanda feels lucky to have a job that is rewarding and humbling
Amanda Brown was about to turn 50 when her professional world unexpectedly imploded. Like her father, she'd been working as a GP, having decided in childhood that it was her dream job. But suddenly she realised she couldn't go on any longer against the background of target-driven government contracts that she found increasingly distasteful. 'I didn't want to have to see every patient encounter as an opportunity to make money -I wasn't prepared to ask people about their smoking habits or if I could take their blood pressure if it wasn't relevant to why they'd come to see me,' she says.
The year was 2004, and Amanda had been qualified for 20 years. She knew she had a great deal more to contribute -but no idea how she was going to do it after she walked out on the GP practice she'd set up in Buckinghamshire.
'Experience, tolerance and understanding
of
life
are
c
rucial
in
my
job'
Then out of the blue she had a phone call: had she ever considered becoming a prison doctor? 'I said no -in fact, it had never occurred to me that prisons had doctors,' says Amanda. She was about to find out not only that they did, but how much they were needed.