MISSOULA (AP) -- A new contract with a Great Falls company will provide nurses at the Missoula County jail, where medical staffing has been lean and inmates have complained of not receiving medications.

Some said they got medications only sporadically during the past month, and others said prescriptions were changed by physicians they never saw. Still others said they received the wrong medication or found their prescriptions cut off abruptly.

Sheriff Mike McMeekin said temporary help has been hired to ease the nurse gap for now, and the Great Falls contractor will have nurses and a nurse practitioner at the jail by mid-August.

"We've been working hard to get this resolved as soon as we realized what's happening," McMeekin said. "Obviously, we don't want people who need medications to be going without them."

The jail has had difficulty retaining nurses and other medical staff during the past six months.

The nursing shortage and inmates' complaints about erratic delivery of medications are being monitored by county officials, said Mike Sehestedt of the county attorney's office. Concern goes beyond liability issues that could arise if an inmate does not receive prescribed medicine, Sehestedt said.

"What I'm concerned about is that the rules say this is how we treat people," he said. "If they're not being treated that way, then we need to fix it."

State government has a contract with Missoula County to hold some state prisoners at the jail, audited by the Montana Department of Corrections in January to gauge contract compliance. The department found compliance with about 80 percent of the contract and identified some medical issues of concern.

McMeekin said his department was aware of most of the issues and has been working to correct them.

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com