Hospitals and psychiatric institutions X Within the framework of statistical data collection, measures that restrict freedom should be recorded over a longer period of time and put in relation to the number of patients. On the basis of this data, it is possible to identify significant differences and take preventive action. 2.2.3 Dealing with COVID-19 measures Staying in hospital is a difficult situation for people. In addition to the physical and/or mental suffering, there comes the feeling of helplessness. Visits from close persons have a comforting effect on most patients. Strict visiting rules from March 2020 The Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Laender agreed on visiting bans in order to maintain the operability of hospitals during the pandemic. There should only be exceptions for small children and dying persons. These bans came into effect in Vienna, Styria, Burgenland, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Carinthia and Tyrol shortly before the shutdown imposed in March 2020. This was not the case throughout Salzburg or Vorarlberg. Written recommendations on COVID-19 preventive measures in hospitals were published by the Ministry on 31 March 2020. These did not explicitly mention visiting bans; however, the objective to keep the number of visitors as low as possible was stated. Only Vienna issued a regulation prohibiting visitors from entering hospitals, residential and nursing homes as well as nursing wards on 14 April 2020. All of the other clinics referred to board resolutions of the hospital operators or their house rules. The feared masses of COVID-19 patients did not materialise in spring 2020; all of the planned treatment had been postponed. Visiting was managed more generously with appointment systems from May, but greatly restricted towards the end of the year because of a sharp increase in the number of new infections. The AOB received many individual complaints on this topic. There was consensus in the NPM that the right to receive visits can be restricted to stop the spread of COVID-19, but a general visiting ban should never be imposed. Apart from that, commissions were mainly positive about the way in which the visited hospitals and psychiatric institutions and psychiatric departments handled the pandemic-related protective measures. In the department for chronic patients at the Clinic Klagenfurt, the standard operating procedures for the prevention of spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus were ideally formulated according to Commission 3. The preventive measures were well chosen, and PPE and PCR test kits were in sufficient supply throughout the first lockdown. The staff did their best to substitute services and therapies that could not be provided temporarily using a pooled approach to the therapeutic service. 49