By Lisa Backus
New Haven Register, Conn.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — State Department of Correction officials said within two weeks they will prioritize care for inmates who need to see specialty physicians in response to a report issued by Connecticut’s correctional ombudsman that determined some people have waited more than two years for an appointment.
According to DeVaughn Ward, the state’s correctional ombudsman, more than 1,500 inmates have been waiting for periods as long as 24 months to see cardiologists, gastroenterologists and other specialty physicians for a variety of health concerns that should have been addressed within weeks.
“This report confirms what incarcerated individuals have been telling us for years: medically necessary care is not reaching people in time,” Ward said. “These are not abstract failures — these are real people with real medical needs, waiting in pain while the system struggles to respond.”
The DOC said when the report was released that the backlog was due to a shortage of physicians in all specialities. But their formal response issued Monday provided a detailed plan to get inmates outpatient specialty services as quickly as possible while they evaluate the agency’s medical services.
As part of the plan, within two weeks the DOC wants to identify the needs of inmates and prioritize who should be seen as soon as possible by examining morbidity, carceral status and high acuity needs, the response sent out by retiring DOC Commissioner Angel Quiros said.
The response also said that within 30 days the agency would create a “matrix” to define various levels of care including diagnostic imaging, surgical interventions and specialty visits for services including cardiology and oncology.
The DOC is working with the Office of Policy and Management, the University of Connecticut Health center in Farmington, community partners and other state agencies to deal with the backlog, Quiros said in the response. The commissioner is slated to retire on May 1 .
The initial list of those who needed care provided to Ward in February showed some incarcerated individuals had been waiting since March 2023 for specialty appointments. The list was updated in March 2026 to show there still were 2,367 referrals that hadn’t been scheduled, but the oldest wait time was listed as two years.
According to Ward, there are 1,002 pending appointments for conditions that should be seen within one to two months, but many haven’t been scheduled, creating a two-year backlog. In the higher priority conditions that should be seen within three weeks, there was a nearly a year wait, as of March 13 , Ward said in the report.
The range of delayed treatments include physical therapy for a man who tore two ligaments in his knee and has been awaiting surgery for months, abdominal imaging for a ventral hernia, echocardiograms and pulmonary function tests, the report said.
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