Table 3 Barriers to accessing healthcare: experience of a HIV-positive inmate

I: If you need medical care, what is the process you go through to get access to it?

P: We ask the prison officers to take us to the hospital.

I: So how does it start?

P: We raise our hands.

I: What time is that done?

P: In the morning. In my case, I tell them that officer, my medicine has run out so I need to go to the hospital for more. They agree, the next morning we even leave the [female] prison premises, but when we get to the Male Medium prisons [to access the car], we are told there is no transport. Then we return and come and sleep without taking medicine.

I: Does that happen a lot?

P: Yes.

I: How long have you stayed without taking medicine?

P: I have gone for as long as 3 days without taking medication.