Psychiatric hospitals 2. Intense activity of the Ombudsman for Psychiatric Hospital Patients’ Rights in Warta The Ombudsman for Psychiatric Hospital Patients’ Rights takes part in community meetings in individual wards of the psychiatric hospital in Warta once a week, providing information to patients about their rights and obligations. During the second part of such meetings, when the employees of the hospital leave the room, the Ombudsman talks to patients about the situation in their wards. Apart from group meetings, the patients are always informed that they can talk to the Ombudsman in private. The interviewed patients declared that those meetings were very valuable and provided important information. 8.4 Areas requiring improvement 1.  Legality of stay The representatives of the Mechanism found a  case of a  person staying in a visited psychiatric hospital237 who was admitted without the required court’s decision on the use of a preventive measure. The representatives of the NPM point out that similar irregularities were found in a part of visited establishments238 in the years 2011-2012. They were described in the reports of visiting judges who described the cases of the lack of valid decisions on continued use of the preventive measure, delays in discharge of patients from detention upon the receipt of the original order to discharge them or admission of patients whose complete documentation was not provided by the court. The content of some opinions did not reflect the ongoing medical observations recorded in the case history and court and psychiatric opinions were repeated (they were copies of the previous opinions). Therefore, the verification of the patient’s health and thus the need to continue the preventive measure in some hospitals is only an illusion. 2. Treatment The interviewed patients of psychiatric hospitals usually did not report incidents of ill-treatment on the part of the hospital staff, such as physical or verbal aggression (with the exception of one establishment239, where two persons complained that they had been hit by a staff member, but the visiting team was unable to verify whether such a situation had really happened). Dr Józef Babiński Specialist Psychiatric Hospital Health Care Centre in Łódź. Voivodeship Psychiatric Hospital in Warta, Voivodeship Hospital for Neurotic and Psychiatric Patients in Lubiąż, Voivodeship Hospital for Neurotic and Psychiatric Patients in Suchowola 239 Voivodeship Hospital for Neurotic and Psychiatric Patients in Suchowola. 237 238 95