CONCERNS over staffing levels and healthcare at Blakenhurst prison have been raised in a report by the Board of Visitors.

The report, which ran from July 1, 1999, to June 30 this year, was released last week and comes after Tardebigge prison staff called for a ballot to take industrial action over pay and conditions.

But plans to ballot officers were called off after talks between the Prison Service Union and the jail's directors.

The report expressed concerns over staffing levels on particular wings and some rostered shift patterns which resulted in excessive working hours, raising concerns over safety.

The report also said appropriate medical information which could be shared by the hospital/medical team with the senior custody staff involved with the management of mentally disordered offenders was not being shared.

There was also concerns about the housing of life-sentence prisoners as there were as many as 27 at one time during the year.

The board felt inmates were unable to take proper courses and were unsettled by the coming and going of other prisoners attending court and serving shorter sentences.

The board felt Blakenhurst did not have facilities to cope with these prisoners.

A Blakenhurst spokesman said: "Blakenhurst is not designed for life-sentence prisoners but there's a shortage of places at prisons that do accommodate them.

''This is a problem all local prisons suffer from but we do the best we can for all our prisoners.''

He added: "Where mentally unstable patients are concerned, many prisons do have a relatively high population.

"We have instigated a system where, although we do not break medical confidentiality, for each individual case there is input between prison staff and the medical team.

"Enough information is shared to make sure the individual gets the best care."

The report commended the setting up of a drug-free area and an extensive support programme for prisoners wishing to establish or maintain a drugs-free lifestyle.

Various initiatives appear to have been successful in reducing the number of positive drugs tests.