a busy schedule poses a threat of professional burnout, which in turn may affect the quality of medical care. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, in a report following its visit paid to Georgia in 2018, emphasizes the need to increase the number of nurses in Establishment Nos. 8 and 15. The lack of nurses in the facilities affects the delivery of dental services as well. In particular, dentists do not have a sterilization nurse, who would assist them in sterilizing dental tools. Therefore, dentists themselves have to wash and sterilize tools, which increases the waiting time for prisoners. It should be noted that the equipment in the dental offices is old and needs to be changed. In order to provide timely and adequate medical care, it is important to refer prisoners to relevant specialists, as well as to timely take them to a medical facility. Examination of registers of medical consultations shows that in some cases, doctor-specialists are very busy160 and consultations are provided late.161 In addition, sometimes consultations are superficial, which may complicate the patient’s health condition.162 Examination of the unified electronic database revealed that the deadlines of medical referrals were better met in the penitentiary establishments located in western Georgia, however, there were delays as well. There are significant problems with medical referrals in the establishments located in eastern Georgia. There are patients in the penitentiary facilities, who have been waiting for the medical referral since 2016. In addition, deadlines are not observed in urgent cases either.163 According to the information published on the official website of the Special Penitentiary Service,164 a project aimed at annulling the so-called medical waiting list accumulated since 2016 was launched in December 2019. The Public Defender hopes that the list will be unloaded in the near future. According to the reply received from the Ministry, the Medical Department has been actively working on satisfying the accumulated requests in the electronic referral programme since December 2019 and as of today, in addition to the current referrals, additional 25 referrals have been made to civil medical facilities for inpatient treatment. We hope that this process will continue and will help both to reduce the waiting list in the referral electronic programme and to meet the referral deadlines according to the penitentiary health care standard. Assessing the adequacy of treatment in the facilities is complicated by the inconsistency of medical cards and the lack of information about the results of treatment. Based on the medical cards, it can be 160 For example, the maximum number of patients consulted in Establishment No. 2 is 26 (by dermatologist, cardiologist). There are also cases when 20-21 patients are consulted during one visit. 161 This problem is mostly pointed out in Establishments Nos. 8 and 15. For example, on December 4, 2018, one of the prisoners placed in Establishment No. 8 was recommended in the outpatient medical card, on the basis of the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease, to get a consultation of the cardiologist and an electrocardiographic examination. The patient was consulted by the cardiologist on February 8, 2019. 162 See the report on the visits paid to Establishments Nos. 2, 8, 14 and 15, p. 54. 163 In case of the need for urgent service, the prisoner shall be released within 5 days. 164 See the link <https://bit.ly/39cECPw> [last accessed: 18.02.2020] 60