Pa r t i I . or verbal aggression. The exception was patients complaining about certain employees that addressed them in a loud voice204. In all hospitals, during individual interviews and conversations with patients in the course of inspecting the establishments, the interviewed patients stressed that both doctors and nurses are interested in their daily affairs and help them with great enthusiasm. Additionally, the visitors found two cases205 where hospital rules permitted hospital personnel to conduct testing for the presence of medications, including one case of applying the principle that Refusal to undergo the examination is viewed as breaking abstinence. However, within the meaning of Article 32 of the Act of 5 December 1996 on the professions of doctor and dentist206, a doctor may perform examination or provide other health services, subject to the exceptions provided for in the Act, only upon consent of his/her patient. Despite no legal basis for punishing patients in psychiatric hospitals by personnel, one of the establishments used a ban on shopping as a punishment207. 3. Coercive measures As in previous years, the visitors encountered irregularities concerning the use of CMs. It should be stressed that all the visited establishments were found to be in breach in this respect. There were cases identified where no prerequisites for applying a coercive measure in the form of immobilisation (tying a patient with belts to a chair in a day room, as she frequently slumped out of it208) and no legal basis for doing so existed (tying patients with straps to employees’ hands who escorted them outside their ward209). Moreover, the irregularities consisted in immobilising a person in the presence of other patients e.g. in multi-occupational general rooms or in hallways and often the person tied with belts was placed behind no screen or curtain210. At the same time, such a person often had to do his/her hygiene in plain sight211. 4. Right to information The establishments visited informed admitted patients of their rights and obligations, including rules of their ward, the Patients’ Rights Charter, the possibiHospital in Choroszcz. Hospitals in: Katowice, Choroszcz. 206 Dz.U. of 2011, No 277, item 1634, as amended. 207 Hospital in Choroszcz 208 Hospital in Łódź. 209 Hospital in Choroszcz. Lack of regulations on escorting patients outside the establishment was raised in the Report of 2013, pp. 161-162. 210 Hospitals in: Katowice, Łódź, Bolesławiec, Choroszcz. 211 Hospital in Bolesławiec. 204 205 59