compulsory psychiatric care
work, nationally and regionally, with, inter alia, the Police Authority and the
Prison and Probation Service. Meetings have taken place between representatives of the agencies at the regional level and representatives from forensic
psychiatry in Stockholm Region have participated in an in-house training
for the Prison and Probation Service’s transportation staff. The training has
primarily focused strongly on showing respect to people with severe mental
illnesses. Furthermore, development work is underway regarding transportation in several other areas of psychiatry in Stockholm Region, for example in
prehospital care. In a decision, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman stated
that the reported measures appear to be adequate. The Chief Parliamentary
Ombudsman emphasised the importance of the initiatives taken not becoming a one-off event, but that there is continuity in contact with the relevant
actors regarding, inter alia, questions concerning training initiatives. These
actors have a shared responsibility to ensure that the assisted transportations
are carried out as safely and securely as possible for the patients.26
6.4 Conclusions
The regions must conduct healthcare so that it meets the requirements for
good care. This means, inter alia, that it must satisfy patients’ needs for safe
and secure care.27 Where healthcare is provided, there must be the staff, premises and equipment needed for good care to be provided.28
During this year’s inspections, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman has
once again highlighted the conditions under which healthcare facilities have
to conduct good and safe care. Of particular importance for this is that the
staffing corresponds to the needs in terms of staffing levels, competence and
that the staff always have the required information concerning the patients to
be able to perform the monitoring in a patient-safe manner. Shortcomings in
these areas have been noted, and the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman will,
therefore, continue to follow these issues. Furthermore, it is central that premises are adapted to the number of patients that are expected to be admitted.
The fact that psychiatric emergency units are undersized and understaffed
entails obvious risks for patients, who initially may be regarded as particularly
vulnerable. There are, therefore, reasons for the Parliamentary Ombudsmen
to continue to follow how other regions organise their psychiatric emergency
units.
During the year, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman highlighted the
importance of the care environment for patient safety. This includes female
patients being placed in environments where they did not feel safe spending
time in the common areas. Furthermore, the Parliamentary Ombudsmen
26 See the Parliamentary Ombudsmen’s decision on 7 January 2020, ref. no. O 16-2019.
27 See Section 2 a of the Health and Medical Services Act (2017:30).
28 See Section 2 e of the Health and Medical Services Act (2017:30).
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