1.1 Visits to social care institutions (residential homes for the elderly) The living conditions in the visited wards for persons with dementia are very good. The rooms are mainly single or twin bedrooms, or at most, three-bed rooms. Four-bed rooms and rooms with multiple beds are an exception, one which could only be found in Ptuj RH (11 four-bed rooms) and Trebnje HE (one five-bed and one six-bed room where the sixth bed remains, as a rule, unoccupied or is only used when an urgent daily accommodation in the ward is required). The rooms have their own bathrooms furnished with a washbasin, a shower and a toilet bowl; in some cases, one bathroom is shared by two rooms. The availability of toiletries differs. In some homes (for example, in Ptuj RH and Jesenice RH), residents have at their disposal a soap, small bath hand towels and toilet paper, a fact which should be commended, while in other establishments, they are more careful in this respect. The reason is that they accommodate residents who might swallow the soap or clog the sink drains with paper hand towels which they use and dispose of into the toilet bowl uncontrollably. In Trebnje HE, its staff, for example, resolved this problem by introducing cotton hand towels which are changed on a daily basis, while for a regular hand hygiene of the residents, moisturizing cleansing tissues have additionally been introduced by the staff. The wards also have inside ward bathrooms. All wards have a common living unit (a multipurpose room furnished with a kitchenette) where during the day, various activities take place. This room is also used as a dining room. The NPM has during the visits established that the SW and HLSW rooms are, as a rule, appropriately furnished (a bed, a table, a chair, a bedside table, a wardrobe and a bedside lamp). The rooms have various connections, such as CTV, telephone and Internet connections. Some residents who know how to use them have also mobile phones. Next to the beds (or at least in the room) and in the inside room bathrooms there are, as a rule, call devices. The call systems are effective. However, it has somewhere been noticed that call bells are not installed next to all beds and/or that they do not function next to all beds, either due to a malfunction or because they are disconnected. In Ptuj RH, the NPM proposed that call bells be installed in two rooms where so far there were none. In its response report, the establishment reassured the NPM that the two call bells would be installed shortly. During a visit to the randomly chosen rooms in Bor HE, it has been established that the call bells above two beds do not function, while in one room, two bells were coated with adhesive tape and therefore useless. The NPM has therefore proposed that the functioning of (all) call bells be checked, potential defects eliminated and a protocol for disconnecting call bells adopted. In its response report, the nursing home stated that the call system had been checked, the defects eliminated and that (currently) all call bells had been functioning. While inspecting the rooms in Trnovo CE, it was established that above one bed there was no call bell (it was, however, installed next to the room door). This deficiency was promptly removed during the visit. A call bell next to one of the beds that was out of order was also detected in Jesenice RH. It was therefore proposed that the nursing home regularly check the functionality of call bells, thus eliminating the possibility of a malfunction of the system when needed by residents. Call bells were not installed next to several beds in the SW of Olmo Home, while in the inside room bathrooms inspected, they were out of reach because the call cords were removed. The NPM proposed that the nursing home eliminate the call system deficiencies and introduce control over the measurement of the response time to the calls. In the NPM’s opinion, some call bells, though functional, are sometimes difficult to reach for the residents. For example, in rooms, they may not be found next to the bed or are installed too high above the bed; therefore, the residents cannot reach them from the bed. In addition, call bells in the inside room bathrooms are tied to a cord which is too short which makes it impossible for the residents to reach them in case they fall. In these cases, the NPM proposed that nursing homes fix the aforementioned deficiencies and ensure the functioning of the call system. In most cases, the NPM visits also included the monitoring of the staff response time to the call bell. In Hmelina Home and Bor HE, they responded in one minute. The response time in Jesenice RH was between 2 and 3 minutes. Some nursing homes record the response time of the staff to call bells and also the response time of the staff in the room, which should be commendable. In Hmelina Home, there were 106 calls in the last 24 hours prior to the visit, thereof 17 calls during the night. The response time exceeded 3 minutes only in three cases. In Trnovo CE with the monthly average of calls between 3000 and 3500, the response time is 2.3 minutes. At the time of the NPM’s visit in 2011, the response time was 4.3 minutes. As explained by the staff on this NPM’s visit, they analysed the reasons for exceeding the expected response time (fixed on their own initiative) at that time and came to the conclusion that the delay was the consequence of a large number of calls when fewer employees were present. By introducing a standby duty for responding to call bells at shift handover, they managed to almost halve the response time, which needs to be commended. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2013 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 23