The Public Defender commends the steps taken by the Ministry of Corrections towards the implementation of public sector health care standards in the penitentiary health care system. According to the response received from the Medical Department, the standard of medical services have been elaborated and approved by the Minister of Corrections. The practice of presenting monthly statistical data to the Disease Control National Centre, in accordance with the standard forms existing in the country, has been introduced. According to the correspondence received from the Medical Department, Order no. 8467 of the Minister of Corrections of Georgia, dated 30 December 2015 approved the regulations in the penitentiary system for managing and processing statistical data, terms of presenting it and the competent authorities in charge. Despite the accomplished changes, problems related to the control of the adequate utilisation, disinfection and sterilisation of medical waste, equipment of research labs and manipulation rooms with adequate ventilation system and complete introduction of the categories of medical interventions existing in the public sector health care persist. In 2015, the Public Defender recommended to the Minister of Corrections of Georgia and the Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia to elaborate, through inter-agency cooperation, the plan for the complete integration of penitentiary health care with the national health care system. The Public Defender points out that the elaboration of the plan for the complete integration of penitentiary health care with national health care system implies the elaboration of activities and their timetable for the eventual transfer of the management of the penitentiary health-care to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia. The Public Defender also observes that, in any event, considering the specific features of the penitentiary health care system, it is imperative to implement, within possible short terms, the major basic standards of the public health care sector to ensure gradually the equivalence of the penitentiary health care services with national health-care system. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MINISTER OF CORRECTIONS OF GEORGIA: • To ensure sufficient number of doctors and nurse in all penitentiary establishment for the provision of timely and adequate medical services; • To ensure the visits by medical consultants to the penitentiary establishments are made frequently enough for the timely and adequate provision of medical services; • To ensure that, when determining the sequence of a medical referral in the electronic database, the nature of a disease and dynamics of its progress are taken into account for the provision of timely and adequate medical services; to amend Order no. 55 of the Minister of Corrections of Georgia dated 10 April 2014 to this effect; 142 HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN CLOSED INSTITUTIONS