Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2013 tion room. Similar deficiencies were found by the visiting team in the journals of doctor’s visits. Another persistent problem in some visited units is the participation of a Police officer during the provision of medical services to detained persons or persons brought to sober up.182 The NPM employees on each occasion recommend limiting the presence of Police officers (of the same sex as the detained person) during the provision of medical services to detainees to situations of justified concern about safety of medical personnel, or to places where medical services are provided not equipped with appropriate technical safeguards thus raising concerns that a detainee might escape. Otherwise, the detained persons’ right to intimacy, right to respect their dignity and the right to keep medical secret are violated.183 4.4.5. Right of access to information Article 16(2) of the Ordinance of the Minister of the Interior of 4 June 2012 stipulates that a  copy of the Rules of Procedure concerning the stay of persons placed in rooms for detained persons or persons brought to sober up, as well as the list of institutions protecting human rights, shall be placed in the room for detained persons or persons brought to sober up in such a way that the documents cannot be destructed or used for the purposes of an assault. Despite the explicit wording of this provision, some of the visited units did not fulfil the obligation stemming therefrom.184 In other units, the required texts placed in the rooms were damaged185, incomplete186 or out of date.187 The visits to the Police units include also a verification of the access of detainees to the list of lawyers. The access to such a list should be treated as a safeguard against ill treatment. 4.4.6. Living conditions In the overwhelming majority of the visited Police units, the employees of the National Preventive Mechanism did not have any objections to the living conditions. However, in three cases they criticized the condition of the rooms. PDRs in: Nowa Sól, Kolbuszowa, Łobez, Strzelin, Polanica Zdrój, Węgorzewo. Cf. item 2.4.2 of this Report, which refers to the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 26 February 2014 (file No K 22/10). 184 PDRs in: Nowa Sól, Biała Podlaska, Biłgoraj, Puck, Ryki. 185 PDR in Golub-Dobrzyń. 186 PDR in Lidzbark Warmiński. 187 PDR in Polanica Zdrój. 182 183 59