Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011 director of Zabrze facility ensured that in line with to the cited provision, a patient, upon his/her request, is offered tee by the shift manager at a place designated for the purpose. When analysing the procedure for admitting patients to sobering-up stations in the visited establishments, the Mechanism’s representatives came to conclusion that the complaints about ill-treatment should also be sent to the relevant Police station, since – as discovered by the NPM – there were cases of mistreatment of drunk persons by Police officers who detained and transported such persons to the facilities visited by the NPM representatives. This problem is evidenced by a recording from the monitoring system a sobering-up station in Grudziądz, presenting a man being delivered to the sobering-up station following a police intervention at his home. The NPM observed that the man was wearing only underwear and a vest. He had shoes (here it should be noted that the distance between his home and the facility was ca. 50 km).. In the opinion of the Mechanism, apprehending and delivering to the station a man wearing only underwear (despite the fact that Police officers intervened in the man’s home) is an example of negligence of Police officers who should have enabled the man to at least take the most basic things with him. According to the Mechanism, this situation should be considered as a case of degrading treatment. The National Preventive Mechanism recommended to: • Treat patients in sobering-up stations which respect to their dignity, • Abandon the practice of forcefully stripping patients of their clothes; • Provide beverages to persons detained in sobering-up stations. b) Application of direct coercive measures In the case of persons who after having been admitted to a sobering-up station pose a threat to their own life or health or to the live and health of others, or who destroy equipment in their immediate surroundings, it is permitted to use direct coercive measures, namely holding or immobilising. Holding is a temporary, short-term immobilisation of person with the use of physical force, whereas immobilisation consists in longer overpowering of person with the use of straps, holds, sheets or a straitjacket212. A physician may order application of a direct coercive measure, consisting in immobilisation, for not longer than 4 hours. If needed, the physician, after personal examination, may extend immobilisation for subsequent periods of 6 hours, however immobilisation may not be applied for longer than 24 hours213. Based on results of visits that have been carried out, it can be concluded that in some cases coercive measures in sobering-up stations have been applied improperly. In two facilities representatives of the Mechanism noted irregularities in their application.  See: Article 42 of the Act on the upbringing in sobriety and counteracting alcoholism (Dz. U. of 2007, No. 70, item 473, as amended).  See: § 11 of the Ordinance of the Minister of Health of 4 February 2004 on the methods of escorting, accepting and discharging inebriated individuals and on organization of detoxification centres and other establishments created or indicated by a local government unit (Dz.U. of 2004, No 20, item 192, as amended). 212 213 118