Doctors felt burned out and some nurses seemed indifferent to inmates' care at a prison along California's central coast even after 10 years of federal oversight intended to improve conditions there, the state inspector general reported Tuesday.
Salinas Valley State Prison "demonstrated a profound inability to provide patients with adequate access to care," with inspectors finding problems "in virtually all areas," according to the inspector general's report.
The prison in Soledad had just four doctors for nearly 3,800 inmates during the inspection last spring, while three physician positions were vacant. That led to low morale, with doctors complaining they were overworked and faced "perpetual scheduling backlogs with no end in sight."
Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver who controls prison medical care, agreed that the prison has a serious, ongoing doctor shortage and said officials are trying to hire doctors.
"We're currently addressing the problems contained in the report," Hayhoe said.
Inspectors also found that some nurses "demonstrated an attitude of indifference toward patients' wellbeing" at the prison about 130 miles southeast of San Francisco.
In one case that inspectors called "an extreme lapse in medical care," a nurse sent an inmate back to his cell even though he was disoriented, missing his eyeglasses, dentures and medications, and was unable to clean himself so his clothes were soiled with feces.
Local
He was sent to the hospital five days later, after a second fall from his wheelchair left him with head trauma. He died three weeks later.
Inspectors found nurses often delayed or missed visits with inmates. Follow-up appointments were frequently delayed or skipped entirely, the report said.
One inmate's referral to an outside specialty medical center for a liver tumor was delayed for nearly two months. During that period, his tumor grew so much that it became inoperable.
Medical care in California prisons has been controlled by a receiver since a federal judge ruled a decade ago that an average of one inmate each week was dying of medical neglect or malpractice. The inspections are part of the state's efforts to regain control.
Since last year, inspectors have found that nine prisons, including Salinas Valley, are still below standards, while 14 of the state's 34 prisons are providing adequate care. Eleven prisons still face inspections or have been inspected and reports on them have not yet been made public.
Also at Salinas Valley, prison officials said one inmate was killed on Saturday during an attack by two other inmates. A prison spokesman, Lt. Eduardo Mazariegos, identified the victim on Tuesday as Zachary Scott, 36, who was serving a 25-year sentence from Del Norte County for robbery and carjacking.
Scott drew local headlines in 2013 after he was arrested following a lengthy car chase.
