Psychiatric hospitals
of psychiatric hospitals patients are also related to a higher risk of social exclusion than in
the case of other social groups. There is no doubt that the lack of the proper protection of
rights of these patients, their personal details, and the image, poses a risk of improper use
of the information. Therefore, the Commissioner for Human Rights in their letter143 of 05
January 2016 turned to the Minister of Health and signalled the subject issue. In response144
dated 05 February 2016 the Secretary of State at the Minister of Health shared the arguments presented by the Commissioner in the letter. The Secretary of State indicated that the
proposed amendment of the Act on the protection of mental health will directly regulate in
the act the fundamental issues as regards monitoring the rooms where the coercive measure of isolation is executed. Also, the provisions of the binding implementing provisions
that do not raise doubts as regards the protection of fundamental rights and adhering to
the legislative technique provisions will remain. The recording of the video and audio will
be subject to protection specified in the provisions of the Act on personal data protection.
4) Lack of regulations on escorting persons subjected to coercive measures
outside the institution
According to the representatives of NPM, it seems necessary to undertake legislative
actions by indicating the terms and conditions for conducting the convoys, i.e. in which
cases the convoys may be conducted, who should conduct them, who the convoy personnel
should be composed of, what the means of transport should be, what should the rules of
action should be to prevent aggression or unauthorized walking away of the patient. At the
moment, the issue of organising transportation and ensuring security if it is necessary to
hold an important medical consult, research, or procedure for the patient outside the psychiatric hospital rests exclusively with the discretion of the psychiatric hospital. Directors
of such facilities justly raise that in the cases of particularly dangerous patients, it would be
reasonable to require professional assistance of the Police. This issue was signalled in the
NPM Report of 2013. In response dated 26 May 2015 to the NPM Report of 2013, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Health indicated that the rules concerning the imposing of
coercive measures are regulated by the Executive Penal Code. Therefore, it seems reasonable
to introduce provisions on organising convoys for persons subjected to a preventive measure under that legal act, and the competence in the area of legislative initiative to amend
the Penal Code is vested with the Minister of Justice. The case is pending.
143
https://www.rpo.gov.pl/sites/default/files/wyst%C4%85pienie%20gen.%20do%20ministra%20zdrowia%2005.01.2016.pdf
https://www.rpo.gov.pl/sites/default/files/Odpowied%C5%BA%20Sekretarza%20Stanu%20w%20Ministerstwie%20Zdrowia%20z%20dnia%205.02.2016%20r.pdf
144
57
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents