PRISON healthcare standards in West Dorset are now so good that they are being held up as a blueprint for good practice.

Prisoners have access to healthcare services that are equivalent to those provided in the community, thanks to Dorset Primary Care Trust's prison health team.

The trust says that inmates can see nurses, GPs, dentists and opticians in regular clinics and have access to a full range of mental health services. Prisoners can take part in methadone maintenance programmes and use the Patient Advice and Liaison Service for advice and to express any concerns.

Prisoners can attend well-men clinics, have help to give up smoking and have chronic diseases such as arthritis and heart disease better managed.

The innovative programme that brought about these changes has won several awards and underlined the need for good healthcare for prisoners, 90 per cent of whom have mental health, drug or alcohol problems with poor general health common.

The trust took over responsibility for such healthcare services in 2004 - since when they have been transformed.

Trust strategic development director Carole Lawrence-Parr said: "We needed to work in partnership with all the organisations involved and this was key to our success. We feel we have achieved a great deal but there is still much to do.

"We still have ambitious plans for prison health services up to 2010.

"These include developing a more comprehensive drug treatment system and the development of telehealth."

She said this was a system providing access to centres of excellence from remote sites like prisons which could soon have a pilot scheme in Dorset.