Short-Staffed Women’s Prison Fires Its Only Gynecologist

Coffee Creek Correctional Facility no longer has an on-site gynecologist after firing Dr. Linda Widing on April 29, WW has learned.

“Patients needing OB care are taken to a provider outside of the facility,” spokeswoman Amber Campbell said in a statement. “Currently there is not an OB/GYN provider on site.” Campbell did not offer a reason for Widing’s termination.

But Widing tells WW she was fired after protesting her boss’s demands that she do other tasks than care for women at the short-staffed facility. Coffee Creek also provides intake for the state’s male prisons, and Widing said she was asked to perform physicals on men as well.

“Women are not getting the care they need,” she says. “They don’t have enough providers—it’s ridiculous.”

The prison is currently under fire for forcing women to wait months for specialized medical care. Earlier this year, inspectors from the prison’s regulator found there was a nearly 600 patient backlog, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported on Wednesday after the Oregon Justice Resource Center obtained a copy of the inspection report.

Regulators reported “excessive delays of up to six months to schedule any outside appointments once they are approved.”

Rob Hillmick, president of the prison’s union, recently told WW that the prison’s medical director did not plan to replace Widing. Incredulous, he wondered: “Why wouldn’t you have an OB/GYN at a women’s institution?”

Campbell, the spokeswoman, said that “the recruitment for this position is currently being reviewed.”

The prison has been under intense scrutiny after a 2023 report by outside experts found women’s medical needs were not being met. In response, Gov. Tina Kotek created an “advisory panel” to address the concerns.