of children under the age of 18 had not been receiving suitable treatment and help in the closed ward of Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital in recent years, while the Paediatric Clinic refused to admit them. The Ministry’s appeal was successful, and Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital informed the Ministry on the same day that the Expanded Professional Board of Psychiatry and the Expanded Professional Board of Paediatrics would meet at the request of the President of the Health Council. The meeting was held on 10 May 2016 at Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital. It is evident from the minutes of the meeting between Ljubljana University Psychiatric Hospital and Ljubljana University Medical Centre of 18 August 2016 that both managements harmonised their positions regarding the placement of an intensive (closed) ward for child and adolescent psychiatry. The Ministry thus expected that the relevant ward would finally be established after many years of discussion. We recommended that Idrija Psychiatric Hospital ensure that the staffing composition on wards is compliant with staffing standards. We also recommended that the hospital inform the competent ministry in the event of problems when ensuring suitable staffing composition, or when it is believed that staffing standards are not suitable. In their response to the preliminary report, the management of Idrija Psychiatric Hospital stated that they had been actively striving for several years to attain modern staffing standards in the field of psychiatry, and the recognition of a higher staffing standard than the current one in psychiatric hospitals, particularly in intensive and geriatric care. The hospital had submitted the need to adjust the staffing standards to modern forms of treatment and the needs arising from the requirements of international standards for treating persons with mental disorders several times to the Ministry of Health and the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia, but had not received anything more than understanding about the situation and excuses regarding the lack of financial resources. Insufficient and inappropriate staffing standards in psychiatry were particularly highlighted in the comments on the Resolution on the National Health Care Plan 2015–2025 – Together for a healthy society, where the lack of staff was displayed in a comparative table, which, according to the management of Idrija Psychiatric Hospital, was self-explanatory. Number per 10,000 residents Great Britain Austria The Netherlands Slovenia No. of psychiatrists 1.1 1.18 0.90 0.53 No. of psych. nurses 10.4 3.78 9.90 0.58 No. of neurologists 0.1 0.82 0.37 0.08 No. of psychologists 0.9 4.90 2.80 0.16 No. of social workers 5.8 10.34 17.60 0.04 * Annex to the explanation of the Mental Health Act. The management of Idrija Psychiatric Hospital explained that they had pointed out to the Ministry that the need to expand and improve the staffing structure and make a better assessment of medical treatment programmes in the existing mental health services had been completely overlooked among the objectives and measures in the Resolution intended to improve the quality and safety of treatment. The Resolution should have established a basis for adopting measures needed to enhance and develop new programmes and improve their assessment at health programme providers working in the field of mental health, and in particular, to improve the staffing structure in mental health care. Regarding the fact that workers with appropriate expert knowledge are the only efficient means of implementing various forms of therapeutic treatment, only a good staffing structure in treatment procedures can guarantee safe and high-quality treatment. When planning the network and staff in mental health services, it is imperative to observe all requirements for complex, timely, comprehensive, interdisciplinary and continuous treatment, and the desired balance between hospital and out-patient activities and services in the community and their interaction, including the current staffing deficit in Slovenian mental health services. The management’s comments were not accepted, nor were the comments made on the Dementia Management Strategy, where they also highlighted the need to form a new standard for treating the psychological and behavioural disorders of dementia patients in psychiatric hospitals, whereby the following factors in caring for such patients would have to be observed: increased complexity and scope of caring interventions; higher costs of care; cooperation of a specialist in internal medicine in treatment procedures; cooperation of special clinical pharmacy; spatial and other conditions for improving safety etc. They also stated that they would further strive IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2016 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 89