Patients are welcome to register with us whilst staying at Camden House Approved Premises on bail, probation or parole. We are aware of the pressures currently facing the probation system and acknowledge the difficulties of being placed in a new and unfamiliar area, for a short time, often far from home and/or the prison you have recently been released from.

When registering or requesting an appointment by phone or in person, please clearly inform staff that you are staying at the above location.

To ensure clear communication, improve clinical care and protect the safety of our staff, we will seek the following information from Camden House staff upon patients’ registration. Please also bring any relevant background information such as medical letters to any appointments you attend:

·         A brief summary of your forensic history, with a focus on any potential risks to our staff

·         A brief summary of your past medical history and mental health history, highlighting the most important or urgent issues

·         A complete list of medications which you were taking in prison at the time of release

·         Contact details of your probation worker and key worker

·         Whether you need a fit note

We often receive requests for information from outside agencies about Camden House residents. We follow NHS guidance on confidentiality, as we would for any patient, and will seek your consent before sharing medical information (unless there is an exceptional reason to over-ride that, such as public interest or significant risk to others). If you have already provided a written consent form for information sharing with other agencies to staff at Camden House, we may request this directly to avoid duplication and delay.

Please note that prescriptions for Camden House residents will be sent to JP Pharmacy as standard.

To ensure the safety of our staff, we will have a chaperone (additional staff member) present for your consultation. We operate a zero-tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse against our staff: should this occur, we will remove patients from our list with immediate effect and inform their probation officer and Camden House staff. This includes actual or threatened physical violence, or verbal abuse which leads a staff member to fear for their safety.