Recording of the medical examination in cases of traumatic injuries should be made on a special form provided for this purpose, with body charts for marking traumatic injuries that will be kept in the medical file of the prisoner. Further, it would be desirable for photographs to be taken of the injuries, and the photographs should also be placed in the medical file. In addition, a special trauma register should be kept in which all types of injury observed should be recorded. 75. It is important to make a clear distinction between the above-mentioned medical screening and the procedure followed when a detained person is handed over to the custody of a prison. The latter procedure entails the drawing up of documentation, co-signed by the prison staff on duty and the police escort as well as perhaps by the detained person. Any visible injuries observed on the prisoner at the moment of handover of custody will usually be recorded in that documentation. This procedure is of an administrative nature, even if – as is sometimes the case – it takes place in the presence of a member of the prison’s health-care staff. It can in no event serve as a substitute for the medical screening procedure already described. Moreover, given the presence of the police escort as well as the anxiety often felt at the very moment of entering prison, prisoners should not be questioned at this initial stage about the origin of any visible injuries observed on them. Nevertheless, the record made of visible injuries observed should be immediately forwarded to the prison’s health-care service. 76. The CPT sets much store by the observance of medical confidentiality in prisons and other places of deprivation of liberty. Consequently, in the same way as any other medical examination of a detained person, the medical screening referred to in paragraph 73 must be conducted out of the hearing and – unless the health-care professional concerned expressly requests otherwise in a given case – out of the sight of non-medical staff. This requirement is at present far from being met in all States visited by the CPT. 77. However, the principle of confidentiality must not become an obstacle to the reporting of medical evidence indicative of ill-treatment which healthcare professionals gather in a given case. To allow this to happen would run counter to the legitimate interests of detained persons in general and to society as a whole262. The CPT is therefore in favour of an automatic reporting 262. For a description of the dilemmas that can be faced by health-care professionals working in places of deprivation of liberty, see paragraphs 65 to 72 of the 1999 Istanbul Protocol (Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment). Appendices ► Page 131