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.

Project documentation

Useful information

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Back Romanian medical personnel enhanced knowledge on medical ethics arising within the Penitentiary System

@ Council of Europe

During a 2-day training of trainers, 14 representatives of the medical personnel from 10 penitentiary facilities and the Medical Department of Penitentiary Service, learnt more on the Council of Europe and other international standards, as well as on the national legislation regulating medical ethics in Romania. Apart from this, during the discussions and group work exercises participants enhanced their knowledge through case studies related, but not limited, to medical ethics in examination and health care management on admission, medical consultation and medical documentation, as well as effective screening of injuries and documentation of injuries and ill-treatment. Special attention was paid to the ethics in relation to the vulnerable groups.

The training served as a good platform to share the information and discuss specific cases from the practice. All the participants found that the training was relevant and useful and that they will be able to use the knowledge and apply newly gained skills in their daily work.

The training was organised on 2-3 March 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 08 March 2023