82 health care outdoor time. This also concerns patients placed under observation and secluded patients, when their health permits outdoor time. The Ombudsman recommended that the hospital pay more attention to its outdoor time policy and ensure that patients’ access to the outdoors is not limited any more than is necessary. The Ombudsman also recommended that the hospital adopt a policy of monitoring the patients’ outdoor time, especially in the case of patients who are not able to go out independently. • At the geriatric psychiatric ward, the daily programme included 45 minutes of outdoor time six days per week, while at the youth psychiatric ward, the daily outdoor time was 15 minutes. The Ombudsman emphasised that all patients should be given the opportunity to spend at least an hour outdoors every day, their health permitting. Follow-up: The hospital reported that it had changed its practices following the visit and had increased opportunities for outdoor time. • In reviews of patient documentation, the NPM noted that a patient who had been under long-term seclusion had been able to go outdoors only once a month on average over the past three years. The Ombudsman stressed the importance of daily outdoor time as part of high-quality care. According to the Ombudsman, patients should have the opportunity to spend at least one hour per day outdoors, unless their health or a special, particularly grave reason related to order and safety at the hospital prevents this. The Ombudsman recommended that outdoor time should be included in the patients’ care plans. The Ombudsman took the initiative to investigate the conditions of a person who had been in seclusion for a prolonged period of time. Reduction of restrictive measures • The information obtained from the hospital showed that coercive and restrictive measures were used in the hospital relatively rarely. It was, however, difficult to form an overall picture of how this information was utilised in practice, other than as a summary in the hospital’s annual report. The Ombudsman referred to the CPT standards, according to which each psychiatric unit should adopt a plan to minimise the use of coercive measures. The Ombudsman recommended that the hospital continually monitor the implementation of measures and draw up a plan to reduce the use of coercive measures. Follow-up: The hospital reported on measures that the hospital had taken to reduce the use of coercive measures. These included staff training on encountering aggressive behav-