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Can police deny me my medication?

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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SONIC

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I was recently arrested after having a drink and trying to stop a fight. The police took me to the local station and took everything off me including my insulin and tester. They allowed me to see a nurse who tested my blood to be 12.9 - They would not allow me to have any insulin. Tested again an hour later and 17.9 - Again denied me any insulin. They then took me to hospital and I was allowed 4 units. By this time my head was all over the place. I was in their custody for 6 hours before I was allowed this injection. Are they allowed to do this? Hope someone can help as I have found a few bits relating to cases in the US but nothing in the UK
 
I'm not a legal expert but theoretically I'm not sure they can. Denying you insulin could actually kill you through DKA. I would speak to a lawyer.
 
Doesn't sound right to me, it's tantamount to throwing you down the stairs I would have thought. If they weren't sure then they should have found someone who did - was the nurse knowledgeable about insulin?
 
Get a copy of your custody record I would of thought under the data protection act you would be allowed to. That will then show a record of the events at the station. we're you interviewed? If you go down the lawyer route they will need copies of things like this. Maybe try the p c c to get advice. If you search on google have you tried telling it you want uk results
 
Thanks for your quick reply. Nurse said she cant give me insulin because I'd been drinking. I'd had a bottle of wine over about 10 hours. I was in a cell having panic attacks because my blood was high and couldnt do anything about it, and ofcourse the stress was sending it higher. I asked for a breathalyser test but they wouldnt give me one. At the hospital the doctor said that I wouldnt die by having high blood sugar! Unbelievable!!
 
Thanks Steff. Not given an interview, a phone call and was told no lawyer available!!
 
Wow you are all being a brilliant help! Many thanks! I dont think that they have followed the correct proceedure. They even put me out the front doors of the station at 3am! The doors were then locked! A woman on her own who has just told them she is now having a Hypo. They did atleast order me a taxi at a cost of ?80 to get home. Luckily I had a cereal bar to keep me going
 
SONIC said:
Wow you are all being a brilliant help! Many thanks! I dont think that they have followed the correct proceedure. They even put me out the front doors of the station at 3am! The doors were then locked! A woman on her own who has just told them she is now having a Hypo. They did atleast order me a taxi at a cost of ?80 to get home. Luckily I had a cereal bar to keep me going
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Why did you need a cereal bar with a blood sugar of 17? :confused:
 
One extra point to make, which I only learned when I met a paramedic who worked at several police stations over a wide area (at my place of work, not his, I hasten to add!) is that while Police will inform a HCP of need for an assessement visit, it can take a while for the HCP to drive to the station; the procedure then needs to be repeated for each blood test and each insulin injection, with the aim of preventing any self harm - may sound unlikely, but deaths / suicides in custody are sadly not unknown.

While it's very unpleasant to have high blood glucose of around 17, as you quote "At the hospital the doctor said that I wouldnt die by having high blood sugar!" I'm not clear when you got to the hospital? After leaving Police station? Some time later when you enquired about treatment? And remember, alcohol does bring down blood glucose - as you noticed by being hypo when you left the Police station at 3am with your cereal bar.

Were you actually arrested? Or taken into custody after being checked at hospital - A&E departments need to keep the situation for staff and other patients and companions safe, and sometimes that means getting Police to remove drunk people to a place of safety.

Not a nice situation for you or anyone else involved, SONIC. Hope you manage to find out what happened, when etc and complain if your treatment doesn't match Home Office guidelines, not just relating to diabetes, but access to lawyer and telephone call.
 
Thanks for your points. Just to clarify, I was still under arrest when the police took me to the hospital. In the space of 1.5 hours the doctor gave me 3 injections in an attempt to bring my levels down. I was then returned at 2am to the cell and experienced a hypo around an hour later, just prior to release. They didnt even have any glucose to give me so orange powder and water out of the vending machine saying "There should be sugar in that". No further checks were made and nothing recorded. As I still felt unwell I had a cereal bar to get me through it. I do not believe that they should have denied me my insulin 6 hours previous. Anyone have any thoughts? Anyone else been in this position or know of anyone who has?
 
If you were given 3 injections of insulin within 1.5 hours then sue the hospital Dr for negligence.
 
Thanks Pamper_Sue. I knew it was ridiculous at the time. Why do so many people not understand the importance of what they are doing with diabetics. Do you think they should have denied me my insulin several hours previous? The doc on site said no injection as did the Sergeant
 
The police will claim they took the doctors advice but I would ask to speak to the inspector responsible for that shift to let him know that it is a dangerous practice, and based on his response then take legal advice.
 
Hiya
Glad youre ok and back at home.
The role of the police whilst you are in the cell is to keep you safe and ready for questioning. Unfortunately they have to assume you may wish to harm yourself and therefore they cannot let you have access to insulin whilst under arrest.
 
Unfortunately they have to assume you may wish to harm yourself and therefore they cannot let you have access to insulin whilst under arrest.
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I can understand why the injections would need to be supervised but that should not equate to denial of insulin - that in itself could be just as harmful.
 
It sounds like a nightmare experience, and I'm glad you came through it without serious harm. I can imagine nothing worse than being denied the right to look after my diabetes and being put into the hands of people who don't seem to understand.

To play devil's advocate for a moment though, can you imagine the uproar if a person with diabetes, who was drunk, injected themselves with insulin while in a police cell and then died of a hypo? The police would rightly be blamed for not taking proper care.

I do think that several things seem to have gone wrong here - the most obvious one seems to be the doctor in the hospital who gave you three insulin injections in the space of an hour and a half - that would sound clueless in the extreme! I'd be trying to find out who that was. Didn't you say anything, the second time he/she tried to inject you? I'd have had to be forcibly restrained to let someone do that to me!

I do think that the doctor who said you won't die from having high blood sugar may have had a point - given that you say you'd been drinking, he/she was probably thinking that the danger of a hypo would be far worse. Which makes the actions of the hospital doctor even more extraordinary.
 
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