Country

Hungary

Detention issue

Healthcare

FRA research findings

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Legal instruments & key provisions

Legal instrument Key provision
Healthcare Decree (8/2014. (XII. 12) IM rendelet a büntetés-végrehajtási intézetekben fogvatartott elítéltek és egyéb jogcímen fogvatartottak egészségügyi ellátásáról)Detainees are entitled to have access to adequate medical services, including emergency care, equivalent to those enjoyed by the general public. Prisons have to have a prison doctor available on site. All prisoners, within 72 hours after their reception, have to go through a general medical check, and they have prompt access to basic medical services (including emergency dentistry services) within the prison.

NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM RECOMMENDATIONS

Year Recommendation Report
2016The NPM stated that medical services available to persons deprived of their liberty, i.e., medical care, nursing, necessary diet, therapeutic appliances and equipment, rehabilitation or any other special form of treatment, shall be provided under the same conditions as they are provided in general to members of society. The barrier-free accessibility, furnishing and equipment, medical, nursing and technical staff of healthcare institutions servicing persons deprived of their liberty shall also be provided in accordance with the aforementioned requirements. Report details
2018I request the Minister of Justice to examine – together with the Minister of Interior – the possibilities of regulating more effectively the examination of the mental condition of detainees before making a decision on the application of the rules of any form of separate accommodation, including their fitness for placement in a single occupancy cell, and to take steps to issue the necessary regulation. I request the chief commander of the national penitentiary system to consider the possibility of increasing the size of the health-care personnel in order to have more employees and psychologists. I request the commander of the penitentiary institution to make sure that detainees suffering from asthma can always keep their inhalers on their person, to make sure that detainees receive the necessary medicines even when they do not have immediate access to a medical consultation, to guarantee the broadest possible range of psychotherapeutic treatment to those detainees who have recently been operated on or injured. Report details
2018The NPM requests the director of the juvenile correctional facility to guarantee that juveniles living with intellectual and/or psycho-social disability or any other type of disability are placed in special units regardless of whether they are convicted to correctional treatment or they are held in pre-trial detention. Report details
2018I request the commander of the Budapest Metropolitan Penitentiary institution to take steps in order to guarantee that doctors treat detainees with empathy during the medical examinations. Report details
2019I request the commander of the penitentiary institution to make sure that suicidal detainees always get adequate help, to inform detainees about the possibility of turning to the patients' rights representative, to increase the number of psychologists, to make the operation of the psychiatric and psychology unit possible Report details
2019I request the head of the Nógrád County Police Department to review the practice in the police jail, which allows detainees to have easy access to sedatives and sleeping pills. I request the head of the Salgótarján Police Unit to guarantee that prison officers are not allowed to decide whether the medical complaint of the detainee is urgent. Report details
2020 The NPM report recommends the organisation of group activities for detainees in the treatment-therapy, psycho-social, drug-prevention and chronic treatment units even during the pandemic. Report details