Report of the CHR on the Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland
2) Insufficient number of beds at hospital facilities
There is a clear tendency to reduce the capacity of the facilities in order to meet the
basic standards in terms of living standards of patients, i.e. accessibility to beds from three
sides and free access to them by the patients. This leads to a lowering of the total number
of beds at psychiatric treatment facilities in the given region. Let us take the situation in
the Małopolska region for example. J. Babiński Psychiatric Hospital in Kraków lowered
the number of beds. The Psychiatric Hospital in Andrychów (after the on-going general
renovations) will need to do the same, in order to ensure the appropriate living standards
for the patients. Meanwhile, there is nowhere to direct the patients in this area. The second
psychiatric hospital in Kraków is overcrowded. No new facilities are established, and the
community care is practically non-existent, which is another general problem that is reported by doctors working for psychiatric hospitals and wards.
3) CCTV monitoring at psychiatric hospitals
No act that regulates the treatment of the patient in a psychiatric hospital contains a
provision that would regulate the issue of CCTV monitoring at such facilities as well as the
issue of collecting, processing, and storing recordings from CCTV monitoring. Certain issues concerning the CCTV monitoring in the rooms used to isolate patients and rooms for
detained patients in the hospitals with enhanced security, were regulated in ordinances141.
It must be noted that the existing statutory authorizations to issue executive regulations do
not provide for an authorization to regulate the issue of the internal CCTV system in psychiatric hospitals in any ordinance. Therefore it must be noted that the current provisions
that regulate the use of CCTV (monitoring) at psychiatric hospitals have been introduced
into the legal system contrary to the provision of Article 92(1) of the Polish Constitution.
As a result, it must be stated that the vestigial provisions of the current ordinances collide with the contents of the provisions of Article 47 in conjunction with Article 31(3) of the
Polish Constitution and Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms and Article 17(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights142.
The competent ministers (Minister of Health or the Minister of Health in cooperation
with the Minister of Justice) therefore exceeded the scopes of their mandate while regulating
in an ordinance the issues whose regulation is reserved at the statutory level, and without a
statutory authorization to regulate the issue. Next to the arguments presented above that are
related to proper legislation principles, the issues of monitoring persons are of fundamental
significance from the viewpoint of human rights. Paying particular attention to the situation
Ordinance on coercive measures , Ordinance of the Minister of Health of 10 August 2004 on the list of psychiatric centres and
detoxification institutions designated for enforcing coercive measures and the composition, mode of establishment and the tasks of
a psychiatric commission for coercive measures (Dz. U. of 2014 item 599 as amended), Ordinance of the Minister of Health of
26 June 2012 on detailed requirements that must be met by the rooms and devices employed by the entity that renders treatment
services (Dz. U. item 739).
142
Dz. U. of 1977 No. 38 item 167.
141
56
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