52 THE GREEK OMBUDSMAN ⚫ PSYCHIATRIC COMMITMENT Individual inspections and observations Psychiatric clinic of University General Hospital of Ioannina The inspection was carried out on 19.10.2017 with no prior notification of the administration. The Psychiatric clinic of University General Hospital of Ioannina admits a large number of patients and makes commendable effort to provide efficient services. There are involuntary commitment admissions of patients coming from various remote places, without respect to sectorilisation and to the basic rule of closeness to the patient’s residence, and often with no evidence on the patient’s identity or their medical history. The clinic informs the National Health Operations Center (EKEPY) of the clinic’s availability, so that it manages admission of involuntary commitment cases. This results in overcrowding and is quite possibly the reason behind many and long lasting restraint cases. This issue could be resolved if the clinic were to cooperate with a social worker and the bureau for the rights of health care services recipients, concerning the collection of data on the patients’ medical and social records. The above operating conditions of the clinic mark the necessity of the creation of an acute incidents department with fully deployed capacity. The increased care unit (“quiet room”) should not be used until its infrastructure is improved and security conditions are ensured. The Greek Ombudsman highlights emphasizes the need for change in the unit’s organizational structure and its culture, with a view to decreasing the number and the duration of restraints, a point concerning both the hospital’s staff and its administration. To achieve this, it is recommended that the nursing staff specializes in psychiatric service. This kind of training has been proven to facilitate focused intervention in crises and in alternative interventions in case of agitated patients, departing from the traumatizing practice of restraint. The Greek Ombudsman is deeply concerned about the way the National Health Operations Center (EKEPY) manages cases without respect to any of the basic principles of organizing mental health care, namely those of sectorialisation and of respect to the personality and rights of patients, who are carried by a police vehicle on the basis of availability, away from their families and residence. EKEPY should, even if its intervention is deemed necessary in organizing health care services, take into account and keep the principles of community psychiatry and safeguard the mental patients’ rights, if its intervention is to be legitimate.