A meeting next week of Parliament's correctional services portfolio committee to discuss medical parole for terminally ill prison inmates is not going to focus specifically on convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik.

"We are going to discuss medical parole for terminally ill inmates. We are not going to focus specifically on whether Mr Schabir Shaik is terminally ill or not. We are going to treat him like any other inmate," committee chairman Dennis Bloem told Sapa on Monday.

The meeting is set for 16 September.

Bloem said the committee was concerned about the number of people dying in prison. When it met last month MPs heard a total of 1249 inmates died in prison in 2006, and 1056 last year.

"A lot of terminally ill prisoners have been identified... we are sitting with a list of names," Bloem said.

Correctional services officials from KwaZulu-Natal — where Shaik is serving a 15-year sentence for corruption and fraud — would brief members on his case.

Since starting his sentence, Shaik has spent more time in hospital than in prison. His brothers, Yunis and Mo Shaik, warned last month that their brother was "extremely, extremely ill" and called for his release on medical grounds.

According to reports, Shaik is suffering from severely high blood pressure.

Bloem said while Shaik would not be discriminated against, his case was viewed as "one of many others" for consideration.

Sapa