Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2015 Most of the non-implemented recommendations and warnings require significant financial investments, for example renovation or partitioning of rooms, or the implementation requires agreement to be reached between two separate departments, for example, for solving the issue of supplementary health insurance for all prisoners, or the implementation requires change of regulations. Despite that, a high percentage of implemented and completed recommendations will surely have a positive impact on treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. 3.1. Actions of competent bodies and institutions according to written recommendations and warnings in 2015 response is pending 44% not completed 6% completed or pending 40% currently being considered 10% Visits to the prison system In order to get a better insight into the respect for the rights of persons deprived of their liberty in the field of healthcare, accommodation, special measures for maintenance of order and security, disciplinary measures, implementation of means of coercion and hunger strike, in 2015 we visited county prisons in Zagreb, Osijek, Gospić, Split, Bjelovar, Varaždin, Rijeka, Dubrovnik and Sisak, as well as Šibenik State and County Prison and Lepoglava and Glina State Prisons. Prisoners’ healthcare In all penal institutions we visited, a shortage of employees in prisoners’ healthcare wards was found, in comparison to the number of systematized job positions. For example, in Osijek County Prison, only two out of five systematized job positions are filled, those of two nurses, while a head of the ward, a physician and another nurse still need to be employed. One nurse is employed under a service contract, and the general practitioner and the psychiatrist have concluded business cooperation agreements with the prison. In Lepoglava State Prison, out of 16 systematized job positions only 11 are filled, and in Split County Prison, out of six systematized job positions only four are filled. A similar situation is present in other penal institutions as well. Physician are reluctant to come to work there and they sometimes stay for only a few days, so there is great fluctuation. In Zagreb County Prison, the prison physicians perform about fifty examinations a day, and the psychiatrist performs about thirty examinations. Although the total number of prisoners has reduced, the number of physician’s examinations has increased, and in general the number of instances when prisoners are taken out of the prison to external medical institutions has also increased. 8