REVELATIONS about healthcare and a riot in a top security jail near York have sparked anger and concern.

The Press reported yesterday how a watchdog’s annual report on Full Sutton Prison claimed inmates expected “gold-plated” standards of healthcare, and probably received better care than law-abiding members of the community outside.

It said prisoners had 17,500 face-to-face consultations with GPs and nurses in 2009 and paid 131 outpatient visits to York Hospital, with 16 being admitted and one staying there for 22 days.

The report by the Independent Monitoring Board also revealed a bragging prisoner led a riot in segregation cells after magistrates gave him a “lenient” concurrent sentence for assaulting a prison officer, which would not act as a deterrent. This left prison staff with a feeling of ‘“frustration and resentment”.

However, the report said there had been only one incident of “concerted indiscipline” during the year compared to four the previous year, which was encouraging and reflected positively on the professionalism of all the staff.

It said there had been “commendable progress” in several key areas, adding: “The Governor and prison staff are to be congratulated on another successful year.”

But MP Greg Knight, whose East Yorkshire constituency includes the jail, has called for an urgent examination of the claims made in the report about issues such as healthcare standards and the segregation area violence.

He said: “This report raises a number of issues which give cause for great concern and I am today writing to the Minister to ask that he considers the criticisms as a matter of urgency and that he lets me know what action he intends to take as a result.”

Glyn Travis, spokesman for the prison officers’ union, the POA, claimed both the standard of inmates’ healthcare and the failure to punish a prisoner who assaulted an officer resulted from an “appeasement” policy being operated by the Government – partly in response to human rights legislation.

He agreed with the board that a concurrent sentence was “absolutely no deterrent” for a life sentence prisoner, and increased the risk of assault for both officers and other prisoners. He said sentences should instead be added on to the end of a prisoners’ tariff.

The Ministry of Justice has said Ministers will fully consider the report and respond to the board in due course.