vested with duties of the medical unit chief. Consequently, this leads to a conclusion on inadequacy of the protection of the right to healthcare at the institution. Importantly, in 2014, the Commissioner for Human Rights received 615 written petitions from prisoners or their close relatives on inadequate medical assistance at penitentiary facilities. The key issues raised in these petitions included low level of primary medical assistance at penitentiary facilities, inadequate organization of the process of consultations with specialists, arbitrary delay in reviewing requests for hospitalization by the Department of the Penitentiary Service of Ukraine etc. For instance, on 3 April 2014 pursuant to proceedings launched by the Commissioner for Human Rights following a petition of citizen Zh., a verification visit to Shostka correctional colony (#66) took place for the purpose of checking information on violation of constitutional rights of a convicted R. Multiple violations of the rights of persons at the institution were identified during the visit. In particular, health condition of prisoner R. required urgent surgery thus he was referred to the interregional hospital at Temnivka correctional colony (№ 100). However, officials of the institution demanded that prisoner R. and five other convicted persons waived treatment. As a result, all of them returned to the penitentiary facility. During personal conversations with convicted persons, violations of the rights of prisoner D., a diabetes II patient, were discovered. During his stay at Temnivka correctional colony (№ 100), the medication for maintaining blood sugar level was confiscated. Upon return to Shostka correctional colony (#66), he did not receive any treatment thus facing threat to his life. There were numerous recorded violation by the Department of the State Penitentiary Service that ignored requests for hospitalization of convicted persons. Sometimes responses to such requests were provided only after 3-6 months, or not provided at all. Response and state of dialogue with the State Penitentiary Service in relation to recommendations of the Commissioner for Human Rights According to the SPS, the service authorities have conducted a detailed inspection of the Report of the Commissioner on Monitoring Places of Detention in 2013. An order #№ 804/0д-14 dated 24.12.2014 of the SPS was issued, and a working group comprised of SPS officials was established for the purpose of implementation of the Report recommendations. Overview of the results of conducted activities at the bodies and institutions under the authority of the SPS of Ukraine were submitted to the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Human Rights. The SPS of Ukraine supports measures for implementation of the national mechanism against torture for strengthening guarantees for protection of human rights. In particular, unimpeded access to facilities of the SPS is foreseen for the staff of the NPM Department of the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Human Rights. To ensure cooperation with the ombudsman, the SPS issued an order #810 dated 30.11.2012, in accordance to which authorities of territorial SPS bodies shall provide 137