Medication

To get prescription medication in prison, you will need a prescription or approval from your prison’s health service.

If you were already taking prescribed medication before going into prison, you should let the prison health service know as soon as possible. With your consent they can contact your prescribing doctor or pharmacist to approve your prescriptions.

Remember: you have the right to access the medical care and treatment you need to maintain your health. If your prison health service is refusing to provide medication you can make a complaint to the following people:

• Unit Manager or General Manager at your prison
• Health Services Manager at your prison
• Corrections Victoria
• Justice Health

Important: If you make a complaint to someone working at your prison, Corrections Victoria or Justice Health, you should make it in writing and keep a copy of any response you get.

For more information on how to make a complaint to your prison, see the Making a complaint section on the home page. It has information about:

• Preparing for a complaint
• Making an internal complaint (to someone at your prison)
• Making a complaint to Corrections Victoria

If you do not get a response, or are not happy with the response you get, you can make a complaint to an external complaint body.

External complaint bodies

There are different external complaint bodies that take complaints about healthcare, depending on who you want to make a complaint about.

If you have a complaint about healthcare that relates to prison staff, you can make a complaint to the Victorian Ombudsman.

If you have a complaint about medical staff (like doctors or nurses) working at your prison you can make a complaint to the Health Complaints Commissioner.

If you have a complaint about a psychiatrist working at your prison, you can make a complaint to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

Calls and mail to these external complaint bodies are free and confidential.

When you make a complaint to an external body, it’s helpful to have a copy of your written complaint to the prison and the response you got.

For more information on how to make a complaint to external bodies, see the Making a complaint section on the home page.

Getting help from a lawyer 

A lawyer might be able to help if you have been unfairly refused medication or a prescription.

For more information on getting help from a lawyer, click here.