In the departments of the Republican Center for Mental Health (RCMH) of the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, there are mailboxes of the Office of the Ombudsman of the Kyrgyz Republic for the protection of the rights of patients in psychiatric institutions, for appeals in case of violation of their rights and freedoms.
On July 29 of this year, the staff of the Ombudsman’s office carried out rounds of offices, as well as the collection of correspondence from the aforementioned mailboxes. As a result of the check, three applications of patients were registered on the fact of their involuntary hospitalization.
Thus, in particular, a young woman, born in 1994, reported that she did not give consent and did not sign any documents for her hospitalization and treatment. Moreover, the consent to her hospitalization was signed by a woman who is not her close relative. The girl stayed in the department of the RCMH without consent for 6 days. After identifying this fact and conducting an appropriate conversation with the department’s leadership, she was discharged from the hospital.
Also, the collection of correspondence from the mailbox located in the 2nd department of the RCMH was carried out, during which a conversation was held with one of the patients, at her request. As a result, it became known that the woman was also being treated without her consent and wanted to be discharged, about which she wrote a statement. In this regard, the staff of the Ombudsman’s office checked the signature of this patient for consent to receive appropriate treatment and hospitalization. The check showed that there was a signature, but it did not match the signature that was in the statement of this patient to the Ombudsman’s office, in which she said that she did not consent to treatment and hospitalization.
After collecting correspondence from other mailboxes, two more similar statements were found. Taking into account the above facts, the staff of the Ombudsman’s office sent a corresponding request to the RCMH with a request to provide detailed information on the grounds for hospitalization of the aforementioned patients, as well as data from a psychiatric examination, an opinion on the state of mental health and a copy of the patients’ consent to hospitalization and treatment.
In addition, a submission was sent to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Kyrgyz Republic on the need to inspect the above facts of forced hospitalization without a corresponding court decision concerning the above-mentioned persons. If these facts are confirmed, the Office of the Ombudsman asks to prepare and submit to the RCMH an Act of Prosecutor’s Response.
On August 20, 2021, the Ombudsman’s office received replies from the prosecutor’s office of Bishkek, as well as from the prosecutor’s office of the Oktyabrskiy district of Bishkek, in which it was reported that “on August 16, the prosecutor’s office of the Oktyabrskiy district submitted a submission to eliminate violations of the law in the RCMH. On the fact of forging signatures of patients, on August 16, 2021, the prosecutor’s office registered the relevant material in the Unified Registry of Crimes and Misdemeanors under part 1 of Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. For the implementation of pre-trial proceedings, the material was sent to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Oktyabrsky District of Bishkek “.
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