DOC/OS(XXXIII)/324c/I 36 clinic serves the male prisoners. Women go to the clinic situated in their quarters which has a total of eight beds used mainly by pregnant and breast-feeding women. The joint number of medical personnel working in these two medical units is three nurses and one doctor. The doctor who has the joint function of Chief Medical Officer of Prisons comes only twice a week for consultations. Nurses, who have consultations three days a week, see on average 100 patients per day each. The Prison Clinic has a lot of equipment at its disposal for medical investigations and care, which are not in use for lack of staff. The prison clinic has a well equipped dental surgery, but people with dental problems are taken in their dozens to the hospital where dentists have opted for the easy solution of treating these patients by systematically extracting any bad teeth. At Walvis Bay prison the clinic has a capacity of 12 beds for observation, including two isolation cells. One nurse works there permanently with two assistants. They see on average 50 patients per day. A doctor comes twice a month to the central hospital for consultations. At Oluno Rehabilitation Prison a nurse and her assistant work in the Prison Clinic which should normally employ three nurses and two assistants. They see on average 40 patients per day and the most serious cases are transferred to the hospital of Onandjokwe, situated 5 km away, or the Oshakati hospital located at a distance of 30 km. The hospital doctor was in the habit of coming once a week to the prison; he no longer comes for lack of staff in his own hospital. At Grootfontein prison there is a small clinic with a single nurse. Serious cases are transferred to the hospital at a distance of around 1 km. Being the only staff, the nurse is permanently on call. At the Elisabeth Nepemba Juvenile rehabilitation centre a new clinic is under construction. The Centre's nurse works temporarily in a room set up for this purpose. He sees on average 17 patients per day. The most serious cases are transferred to the central hospital at a distance of 16 km. The nurse has expressed his desire to have an assistant before the new clinic opens. Delay in transferring sick prisoners to hospitals and specialised centres One of the main complaints that the delegation of the Special Rapporteur heard from the prisoners regarding their health was the fact that the prison authorities do not intervene promptly to transfer sick people to hospital. This state of affairs, which was observed by the delegation during their visit, exists in both prisons which have a clinic and those which do not. Several reasons are given to justify this delay: lack of a vehicle for transport, insufficient staff, fear of prisoners' escaping, the prison authorities are not informed about how serious the state of health of prisoners. At Windhoek central prison, the delay noted in transferring sick inmates to the central hospital is also due to the size of the prison population. At Katatura police station, the inmates indicated that whenever they are ill, there is always the opportunity to see the doctor, even though the police authorities occasionally claim not having enough staff to comply with the doctors' recommendations to keep some sick inmates under observation in hospital. Foreign prisoners, on the other hand, have said they are not always allowed to see the doctor when they request it. Nevertheless, the delegation confirmed that all seriously ill people they encountered in cells had been seen by the doctor. At Walvis Bay prison, the logbook of complaints, which also is where sick people register their health problems, seems well maintained and up to date. Complaints