Report of the CHR on the Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland
relevant legislative initiative. Until the date of this report, the Office of the Commissioner
for Human Rights did not receive a response from the Ministry of Justice.
During individual interviews, the patients mentioned applying disciplinary consequences in the form of a ban on phone calls. The said information was confirmed by the
nurses’ report book. The ban was imposed due to the fact that one of the patients made
multiple phone calls to a prison. As a result, the patient gave written consent to the personnel to have monthly access to the list of phone calls from the patient’s private phone, and
specified the number of phones that the patient will call. According to the representatives of
NPM, accessing the list of phone calls of a patient is not substantiated in the provisions of
law that govern the stay at the facility and constitutes a too far reaching interference of the
administration into the right to privacy. As regards the issue of disciplinary consequences,
the staff members at the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights believe that there
are no legal grounds for applying disciplinary measures in the visited facility. The aforementioned act does not provide for authorizations to establish and apply disciplinary measures
at NCPDB, and such regulations must be governed in a statute.
d. Social Care Centre in Węgorzew
During the first inspection at the Social Care Centre in Węgorzew (hereinafter: SCC, centre, facility) in October 2013, the representatives of NPM formed many comments, in particular ones concerning the living conditions. However, the situation has improved. On the reinspection date, all residential buildings were well-equipped, kept clean and tidy, and deprived
of their architectural barriers. The conditions provided for the residents were very good.
Until the end of 2013, the centre implemented a remedial programme, whose purpose
was to adapt the facility to the requirements specified in the ordinance on social care centres.
The first inspection of the staff members of the Commissioner for Human Rights took place
during the modernisation. In the course of the said programme, two residential buildings
were modernised in 2008 and 2010, and four new buildings were built in 2009-2013. At
the beginning of 2014, the Voivod of the Warmińsko-Mazurski region, when finalising
the programme, issued a permit for running the SCC in Węgorzew for an unlimited time
period, stating that it meets the required standards. Despite the fact that the SCC premises
has been well adapted to the needs of persons with disabilities, the representatives of NPM
presented the director of the facility with the parameters consistent with the accessibility
planning standards that were recognized as optimal for for the proper adaptation of the
facilities inspected by the representatives of NPM. They might be used in the future in order
to introduce even better facilitations at SCC in Węgorzew.
The representatives of NPM learned about the situation of one of the residents with
particular attention. It was ordered that coercive measures are to be applied towards that
person. The resident, due to self-aggression issues he has been exhibiting since childhood,
was immobilized every day. In line with the records of the facility, it took place every day
at the same times (i.e. 7-10, 12-14, 15-18, 22-6). From the observations of nurses in the
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