Placement in an isolation room

The Ombudsman has initiated an inquiry on her own initiative to investigate the conditions for performance of protective treatment, specifically the justification and scope of regime measures, the justification and scope of placement in an isolation room, exercise of the right of access to the courts, handling of personal belongings and the behaviour of the hospital’s medical staff after the patient’s inclusion in one of the so-called remote monitoring groups.

The psychiatric clinic made an error when it unjustifiably placed and kept the patient in an isolation room, moreover under undignified conditions, and when it needlessly kept him under a regime of remote monitoring, limited activities and limited therapeutic action. Unjustified, prolonged and time-unlimited keeping of a patient under a remote monitoring within which he or she had to conform to a strict regime measures, including a stay in an isolation room, made such an impact on the personality and human dignity of the patient that the Ombudsman evaluated it as ill-treatment.

In its statement to the report, the psychiatric clinic stated that it could not refute some of the points given in the report However, it did not dispute the Ombudsman's findings and assessments. The psychiatric clinic promised to take measures to prevent such errors from re-occurring. The Ombudsman subsequently closed the inquiry.