•• Two other patients were put on the list for an appointment with the relevant doctor on 17 September 2014 but no record of consultation provided could be found. •• One prisoner with mental health problems was saying he had been waiting for a psychiatrist’s consultation several months. According to the prisoner’s medical files, the last time he had an appointment with a psychiatrist was 27 March 2014. Since we did not find the prisoner’s name on the appointment form, the monitoring group asked for an account from a primary healthcare doctor. The doctor explained he/she had forgotten to put the prisoner on the list for a psychiatrist’s consultation and would make good the problem right the next day. As the monitoring carried out at the institution no. 14 showed, 40 prisoners received a psychiatrist’s consultation on 16 October 2014, 32 prisoners on 9 October and 38 prisoners on 2 October. Such a high number of prisoners taking a psychiatrist’s consultation in just one day raises a reasonable doubt about the content and quality of such consultations. During its monitoring visit to the Institution no. 8 in December 2014, the Special Preventive Group talked to the prisoners and the healthcare personnel. It turned out that timely access to a neurologist’s services is an issue because only one neurologist is serving all the penitentiary institutions in the eastern Georgia. One of the most spread diseases in the Institution no. 8 is digestive system diseases but it is hard to timely get an appointment with a gastroenterologist. It is also difficult to timely get a consultation of an ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor. Mental health remains a serious matter of concern in the Institution no. 8. Many prisoners want an appointment with a psychiatrist. According to the reports provided by the healthcare staff, 140 to 185 prisoners get a psychiatrist’s consultation each month. A psychiatrist’s services were not normally available in September and only 68 prisoners were able to get an appointment. The healthcare personnel explained that a list of prisoners wishing to get an appointment with a psychiatrist will be handed over to a psychiatrist by primary healthcare doctors. The primary healthcare doctors, however, refuse to put some prisoners on the list because they think the prisoners are malingerers. We believe, because of the general depressing and unhealthy environment in the Institution, a psychiatrist’s services should readily be available in order to timely identify any psychic problems and timely provide adequate psychiatric assistance. As a result of our inspection visit to the Institution no. 17 in December 2014, we found out that it takes too long for prisoners listed for an appointment with invited doctors specializing in narrow areas to actually obtain consultation of these doctors. The time the patients have to wait for the doctor is inconsistent with the standard of timely provision of medical services. Here are some examples: NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM OF GEORGIA 95