Romania: Strengthening the provision of health care and mental health care in prisons

The Council of Europe implemented a 24-month project to support Romania in its efforts to strengthen the provision of health care and mental health care in their prisons in line with the Council of Europe standards and ECtHR case law.

The project was implemented by the Cooperation in Police and Deprivation of Liberty Unit in cooperation with the main partners, the Ministry of Justice, the National Administration of Penitentiaries and the Ministry of Health.

To this end, the project focused on policy, regulatory framework and operational approaches:

Policy and regulatory framework level:

The project supported the development of a strategy/policy document on human resources in order to attract medical staff to work in prison system and assisted the Romanian authorities with legal analysis and recommendations on improving the regulatory framework on the provision of health care in prison system.

2. Operational level:

The project enhanced knowledge and skills of medical and no-medical staff on medical ethics specific for the prison environment, such as respect of patient confidentiality, as well as recording injuries, especially injuries resulted from ill-treatment, and on the health screening process of inmates upon admission in prison.

The project developed protocols to deal with prisoners suffering from mental health problems and increased the capacities of medical and non-medical staff to provide health care to patients suffering from mental health issues.

The project started on 1 January 2022 and was completed on 31 December 2023 with a total budget of 440.000 Euros financed by the Human Rights Trust Fund.

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Back Needs assessment visit to assist the Romanian Penitentiary Service

@ Council of Europe

On 17-19 May 2022, the Council of Europe international and national experts carried out an on-site assessment visit in Romania to identify the obstacles pertinent to filling in vacant positions in the medical services of the Penitentiary system and provide recommendations in line with the Council of Europe standards and best practices.

During the visit, the experts had met the representatives of various stakeholders such as National Administration of Penitentiaries, Ministry of Health, Ombudsman’s Office and Colleague of Physicians. Apart from this, the fact-finding mission included visits to a number of prisons and penitentiary hospital.

The findings of the mission and subsequent shall assist the National Administration of Penitentiaries with drafting a strategy on human resources addressing the shortage of medical personnel.

This activity was organised in the framework of the Council of Europe cooperation project ”Strengthening the provision of health care and mental health care in prisons in Romania” which aims to assist the Romanian authorities in their efforts to improve the provision of health care afforded to the prisoners as well as provision of appropriate psychiatric care in line with the Council of Europe standards and European Court of Human Rights case law.

Romania 20 May 2022