5 THE POSSIBILITIES OF KEEPING A PHYSICAL DISTANCE AND PROVIDING INFORMATION TO PEOPLE DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERT Y etc. As of the last week of June 2020, the National Board of Forensic Medicine had posted some information material from the Public Health Agency of Sweden on its departments’ notice boards. Furthermore, the examination division in Stockholm used information material produced by Region Stockholm. In her decision, Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman Elisabeth Rynning stated that she had no objection to the National Board of Forensic Medicine choosing to use information material produced by, inter alia, the Public Health Agency of Sweden. She further stated that the National Board of Forensic Medicine might, however, need to supplement this more general information with, inter alia, what measures the agency is taking to prevent the spread of infection. At the closing dialogue meeting, the management of the National Board of Forensic Medicine stated that patients were not informed of what measures the agency would take if a patient became infected. The reason for this was that the National Board of Forensic Medicine deemed there to be a risk that patients would not dare to say that they had symptoms if they knew that it could lead to them being separated from the other patients. Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman Elisabeth Rynning stated that a fundamental element of the Swedish strategy for reducing the spread of Covid-19 is that everybody takes their personal responAn agency must be gesibility. Even a person nerous in its provision of deprived of their liberinformation concerning ty, depending on their which measures may be ability, must be expected to help prevent the taken spread of infection. The fact that a person is deprived of their liberty means that situations may arise where they are in need of sup- port from the agency that deprives them of their liberty in order to be able to contribute to reducing the spread of infection. The patients and the agency can as such, in the view of the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman, be said to be dependent upon one another in achieving the best results in the efforts that should be made to prevent the spread of infection. Such cooperation must be based on a sense of mutual trust that all the parties concerned will take the necessary measures. Thereafter, the Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman stated the following:7 “An important aspect of this is that patients feel sure the agency is doing all it can to protect them from possible infection. For these reasons, I believe that an agency must be generous in its provision of information concerning what measures may be taken in different situations. At the same time, it is important that information is provided in such a way that it is not perceived as a threat or some unauthorised pressure. In my view, the National Board of Forensic Medicine should review the way in which the provision of information to patients can be improved.” 7 See the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s decision of 15 October 2020, ref. no. O 21-2020. – 38 –