the quality of health care in the entire prison system. In the last three annual reports we have
highlighted the need to urgently perform health care inspection in all prisons, penitentiaries
and correctional institutions. In line with the Government's response, in April 2013 the
Ministry of Health started to carry out health care inspections of the quality of health care in
all penal institutions. However, from the Ministry of Health's report on health care inspections
carried out in 2013 in a part of penal institutions (State Prisons in Lepoglava, Turopolje, Glina
and Valtura, Pula County Prison and Turopolje Correctional Institute), it appears that the
performed health care inspections included only the inspection of the premises, medicaltechnical equipment, medical documentation and authorisations of health care workers
providing health care for prisoners in the prison system, and it was established that the
infirmaries of inspected penal institutions are not equipped in compliance with the relevant
health care regulations. Consequently, supervision of the quality of health care provision in
the prison system has yet to be established.
As a result, our expectation is that the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice will urgently
solve the issue of establishing efficient supervision of the quality of health care in the prison
system. In view of the current situation in the field of health care provision for prisoners, our
position is still that the quality of health care provision would be significantly upgraded if
health care would be organisationally separated from the prison system under the Ministry of
Justice and placed under the authority of the Ministry of Health, because it would be an
optimal way to ensure the professional independence of physicians and the autonomy of
patients, which is of fundamental importance even in the prison system.
As a rule, there are still fewer health care workers employed in prisons and penitentiaries than
it is required and, therefore, it is not possible to ensure 24-hour coverage of on-duty health
care workers. Moreover, in some penal institutions medical therapy is still administered by
judicial police officers after being prepared by a medical nurse or technician, while in others
that occurs only exceptionally during the weekends when there are no on-duty health care
workers.
In a majority of prisons and penitentiaries, a judicial police officer is present in the infirmary
during medical examinations of prisoners, excluding psychiatric evaluations. The presence of
a person who is not a health care worker in medical exams, unless required for security
reasons, represents a violation of the prisoner's right to privacy. The fact that a person is
deprived of liberty does not automatically deprive him/her of the patient's right to privacy.
Additionally, it was observed that a higher number of prisoners are becoming addicts while
serving their prison sentence, which requires special attention. Our position is that all penal
institutions should keep records of new Suboxone addicts in order to gain better insight as to
the scope of this issue and to be able to plan potential preventive procedures.
Some prisoners suffering from hepatitis C, to whom medical treatment was recommended, but
who do not have a health insurance policy with HZZO, so the costs should be covered the
Ministry of Justice, do not receive medical treatment because of the lack of funds. Such
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents