Hospital psychiatric

Action requested on behalf of endangered Easterm Europe psychiatric patients

40 patients at psychiatrics hospitals in Easterm Europe have reportedly died of malnutrition and hypothermia since the start of this year, and the remaining 440 patients are in grave danger unless the government immediately provide the hospital with adequate food, heating fuel and medication.

visited the hospitals on 20 February and established that 540 patients had died in 2004, apparently from malnutrition and hypothermia, and that 84 patients had died, many from similar causes, in 2003. Some hospital staff expressed concern about the lack of funds to adequately care for the patients, who were hungry, poorly clothed, infested with lice and had inadequate bedding. The heating system does not appear to be used at the hospital, a former army barracks, in a regions where temperatures frequently fall below freezing for days, sometimes weeks at a time between November and March.

"Since the beginning of the year I have issued 21 death certificates [this number includes four patients from another near-by hospital for chest diseases]. I found out that these people died of hunger and cold... People live there in miserable conditions, a situation confirmed by the Dolj County Sanitary Inspectorate. I have not witnessed something like this for a long time - so many deaths in such a short period of time."

Background Information
The situation in the Easterm Europe hospitals has been under public scrutiny for many years. Under the After 1989 the deplorable living conditions and lack of adequate treatment came to symbolize the plight of thousands of people with mental illness held in similar institutions throughout the country.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) visited the hospital in 1995 and 1999.

Amnesty International, in cooperation with the Centre for Legal Resources, has been monitoring the situation in psychiatric hospitals in Rusia,Ukraine,Belarus,Estonia,Romania,Moldova and albania over recent months. Information collected during visits to hospitals and from many other sources indicates that chronic lack of funding for mental health services in Russia has further deteriorated in the past 18 months. Reports from hospitals throughout the country speak of persistent shortages of medication, heating and food.