Prisoners get tattoos and scars removed on the NHS

PRISONERS are receiving cosmetic surgery on the NHS – including having tattoos and scars removed.

Two health boards are offering convicts cosmetic procedures funded by the taxpayer.

NHS Tayside and NHS Lothian both admit a small number of inmates have benefited from the work, including the use of lasers to remove body art.

The pioneering treatment can cost between £80 and £500 per session, with some tattoos requiring 10 to 20 sessions to be erased completely.

Prisoners at Saughton in Edinburgh and privately-operated HMP Addiewell in Livingston have had the procedures, according to NHS Lothian.

Laser tattoo removal is “rarely carried out by the NHS”, according to the NHS Choices website. But bosses admit a small number of prisoners have benefited from the work since 2012.

The health board says fewer than five cosmetic procedures have been carried out in each of the last five years at St John’s Hospital in Livingston and the Lauriston Building in Edinburgh.

The 10 ops include “skin grafts for scar removal, cyst removal and also laser treatment for tattoo removal.”

NHS Lothian is also one of only a few health boards offering tattoo removal to general patients.

Meanwhile, NHS Tayside – which is responsible for the health care of inmates at Castle Huntly open prison near Dundee and HMP Perth – says “less than five prisoners” had cosmetic work between January 2012 and December 2016.

Those ops were carried out because the prisoners satisfied the “Adult Exceptional Aesthetic Referral Protocol”.

The 2011 guidelines permit cosmetic procedures on the NHS “on an exceptional basis where there is clear evidence of benefit to the patient” despite it not treating an “underlying disease.” The rules approve ops such as nose jobs, breast uplifts, facelifts and even hair transplants.

The health board insisted the prisoner ops took place following a clinical assessment and all cases were “judged against criteria on an individual basis.”

But the work came despite financial difficulties in recent years which led to NHS Tayside repeatedly being bailed out by Scottish Government loans.

Last week, Scotland’s spending watchdog found it faced a “high risk” of failing to balance its budget in the current financial year.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “People will be annoyed that inmates can enjoy this kind of benefit from a hard-pressed NHS.”

However, Pete White, of Positive Prison? Positive Futures, an organisation which supports the reintegration of prisoners back into society, said: “It’s perfectly fair that prisoners have the same access to healthcare on the NHS as other members of the public.”

In the US, prisoners have had gang-affiliated tattoos removed in exchange for enrolment in courses.