National Preventive Mechanism 5.2.6 Unacceptable transfer of patients requiring placement in a psychiatric clinic Local psychiatric care requires decentralised facilities and services in close proximity to where patients live. They must assume responsibility for the care in a region and guarantee that the entire range of psychiatric services is available within the vicinity. The range of care must therefore cover crisis intervention and acute treatment, integrative treatment and care as well as long-term nursing and care. Normative requirements of treatment that safeguards human dignity cannot be implemented if plans are not in place and the adequate financing of psychiatric care is not guaranteed. In Carinthia, the availability of resources that are incommensurate with demand put psychiatric patients under stress. But the attending doctors and care staff in the regional hospitals in Villach and Klagenfurt are also affected. The Land Carinthia currently has neither a psychiatry plan nor a psychiatry coordinator. Planned standards from earlier periods have never been implemented. Based on observations made by Commission 3, the NPM already highlighted grave deficits in psychiatric care in Carinthia in the Annual Report 2015 (see NPM Report 2015, p. 56 et seq.). With 53 beds, Villach Regional Hospital does not have the resources necessary to guarantee the treatment of patients in the Upper Carinthian districts. In addition, the room conditions are inadequate: there are six-bed rooms in Ward D and four-bed rooms in Ward E. This makes it impossible to shield seriously ill patients from sources of irritation and leaves little scope for the private sphere. In spite of empty rooms reserved for patients with supplementary hospital insurance, restraints – although impermissible on human rights grounds – have to be carried out in beds in hallways. Insufficient capacity in Villach Regional Hospital These inadequate conditions mean that patients hospitalised under the Hospitalisation of Mentally Ill Persons Act are examined in Villach Regional Hospital but then have to be transferred to the psychiatric ward of Klagenfurt Regional Hospital despite acutely required treatment. As Commission 3 ascertained, a total of 151 out of 231 patients hospitalised under the Hospitalisation Act were transferred to the Klagenfurt Regional Hospital in 2015. These transfers are extremely stressful for those affected. It was not denied to Commission 3 that patients who might harm themselves or others are escorted in handcuffs by the police. Transfers to other hospitals are often carried out without being accompanied by doctors or psychiatrically trained care personnel. In response to the criticism on the part of the NPM, the Land Carinthia announced in writing that a provisional solution involving an extended psychiatric ward pursuant to the Hospitalisation Act, i.e. with 16 beds, will be implemented in Villach Regional Hospital by 2018. This will be realised prior to the already approved comprehensive refurbishment of Villach Regional 131