VII)  Health care In most of the prisons I visited, I encountered the practice where the prison guard was present within earshot during the convict’s examination (usually near an open door to the office). The common practice where prison guards are within earshot of medical examinations in civilian health care facilities as well as in prison is at variance with both the CPT Standards and the law. I understand that the physicians may fear for their personal safety. This is why it should always be up to the physician to decide when a prison guard is to be present within eyeshot. My recommendation to prisons was for the prison guard to remain beyond earshot during the provision of medical services and, unless the physician requested otherwise, also out of sight. 70 The General Directorate of the Prison Service agreed with my legal opinion and recommendations. By the end of 2015, the offices of prison physicians were being fitted with camera surveillance systems. In case of need, based on the physician’s own assessment of the security situation, the physician should be able to use the camera to ensure the presence of a prison guard within eyeshot. 4) Appointments with physicians Over the course of my visits, some prisons had a problem consisting in several days of wait in seeing a physician. To these prisons, I recommended to put in place an effective and transparent system ensuring availability of health care to the convicts so as to rule out several days of wait in seeing a physician and to ensure availability of health care. If it is necessary, for various reasons, to assess the necessity or unavoidability of medical examination, a physician should always be the one to decide on escorting the convict to the office. In case of doubts concerning the medical condition of the convict, he or she should be escorted to the physician without undue delay. The physician-patient relationship is confidential and subject to non-disclosure on the part of medical workers. Confidentiality of this relationship serves the interest of protecting the convicts from ill-treatment; in this, the physicians play an indispensable role in objectivising an infringement on the person’s integrity, and successful performance of this role is conditional on the patient feeling safe with the physician and not being afraid to speak about any violence he or she is subjected to. Further interest in protection of privacy is based on personal data protection under Act No. 101/2000 Coll., on personal data protection, as amended. Information on the medical condition constitutes sensitive data, which lays down strict requirements for their protection against unauthorised storage, disclosure, transfer, etc. Convicts’ signing up for visit of the physician is arranged the same in all prisons. The convicts sign their name in the book at the given section (or a prison guard signs them up on their request). The book is then delivered to the medical centre of the prison and convicts are brought in based on the data it includes. I found that the convicts are required to write in the section book not only their names and date of birth, but also the reasons for visiting the physician, i.e. their specific health problems. While the convicts only describe their health problems in general term (e.g. headache, flu, rash), these are sensitive data in the sense of the Personal Data Protection Act. If it is necessary to disclose certain information on the nature of the convict’s request via the book for signing up for a visit of a physician, such 70 In truly exceptional cases where presence of a prison guard within earshot is necessary, the physician should record this in the medical file, including the reasons why he or she requested the prison guard’s presence. /30/