Access to a doctor While in custody, prisoners should be able to have access to a doctor at any time, irrespective of their detention regime. This is of particular impor‑ tance when the person has been placed in a solitary detention regime. The health‑care service should enable requests to consult a doctor to be met without undue delay. Outpatient treatment should be supervised by the health‑care staf; in many cases it is not sufcient that the provision of follow‑up care depends on a request by the prisoner. Follow‑up medical treatment should be planned accordingly. Access to medication Medication should be provided to prisoners according to their state of health. The principle of equivalence of care applies in such a case as well. The funds allocated to prisons should be sufcient to enable medication to be provided free of charge to prisoners who are not covered by medical insurance or do not have the resources to pay for it themselves. There should be no interruption (in cases of transfer from one establishment to another) to ensure the continuity of long‑term treatments.8 1.3 Medical confdentiality With the exception of emergencies, every medical examination/consultation should be performed in a medical consultation room, in order to create an atmosphere of confdence, confdentiality, privacy and dignity. Medical confdentiality should be guaranteed and respected with the same rigour as for the population as a whole. Prisoners should be examined individually, not in groups. No third non‑medical persons (other prisoners or non‑medical staf ) should be present in the examination room. Prisoners should not be handcufed during examination/consultation and security ofcers should stay out of earshot and out of sight during the physical examination, unless the doctor or nurse requests otherwise on grounds of safety and security.9 In several recent CPT country visit reports, practices not complying with these rules have been criticised.10 The European Court of Human Rights found a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR – that is, inhuman and degrading 8. CPT/Inf (99)18. 9. CPT Standards 2002 (rev. 2011). 10. CPT/Inf (2007)47; (2008)3; (2010)1; (2011)20; (2012)17; (2012)32. Prison health care and medical ethics Page 12