Annual Report 2014 of the National Preventive Mechanism
201. The lack of medical assistance 24 hours at some CP is a matter of concern.
Although a located shift on duty exists, this does not ensure immediate assistance if
necessary. Accordingly, CP should have healthcare personnel at the centre 24
hours.
202. CP should enable a record of requests for healthcare both ordinary and
urgent, and of the scheduled appointments with healthcare services, to verify that all
requests for medical assistance are met.
203. The measures necessary should be adopted for language not to pose an
impediment for the fluid communication between the healthcare services and the
inmates who request assistance, without errors attributable to lack of communication,
and without this having effects on their privacy, such as, for example, through
telephone translation services.
204. The supply of medicines prescribed to the inmates by the medical practitioners
of the centre and the specialist medical practitioners, in coordination with the referral
hospitals of each autonomous community, must be available.
205. It is the policy of the Ombudsman’s Office, where a closer monitoring of the
taking of medication is required (as in the case of psycho-drugs), that this
medication be dispensed under the immediate observation of the healthcare personnel.
206. Measures must be put in place to prevent losing medical appointments for
tests or specialist consultations due to lack of police officers for the custody and
transfer of inmates, with the consequences that this may have on the health of inmates.
207. The large number of inmates in CP with mental disorders of a greater or
lesser degree and who, accordingly, need specific assistance is a matter of particular
concern. In this respect, the general lack of adequate psychiatric assistance to inmates
is serious. Most CP do not have a psychiatrist on the payroll, so that such assistance is
provided through the public health service or by engaging external consultants, who
visit to the centre at various intervals, of between one week and one month.
Nevertheless, it is considered necessary for the treatment of mental disease in CP not
to be limited to diagnosis of the pathology in question setting up the adequate
pharmacological therapy. It is, in addition, necessary to improve the quality of living of
the patients, increasing their personal independence and adaptation to the
environment. In this respect, it is considered necessary to increase the frequency of
the psychiatric attention given to prisoners and, in the case of the SGIP, to
implement the PAIEM (General program for integrated assistance to persons with
mental disease) in its entire extension, including –in addition to occupational activities–
integrated therapeutic actions containing psycho-educational actions and ensuring
greater coordination of the medical services with the rest of the services of the multidisciplinary team. Likewise, a psychological counselling service should be set up
at CP.
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