In Turkmenistan, patients of prison hospital are in terrible conditions
In 2019, about 700 prisoners died in the hospital. Patients are starving due to lack of nutrition; medical care is low.
The prison special hospital MP-Б/15В is located in Mary region of Turkmenistan. Seriously ill prisoners from all over the country are brought to this institution, here also there is a tuberculosis dispensary. On the territory of the hospital there are surgical department, therapeutic, several infectious departments (tuberculosis, for patients with abdominal infections and patients with skin and venereal diseases). Although the departments are isolated from each other, at each department, patients of different regimes of serving their sentences are kept together.
Due to the fact that the country has been undergoing an economic crisis for many years, the situation negatively affects the provision and maintenance of seriously ill patients in this special hospital. According to the reports of the relatives of the patients of this institution, it became known that the supply of food and medicine has worsened at times, the level of corruption has increased and the quality of services, provided by medical staff, has decreased. Relatives say that food for the patients in the hospital has deteriorated sharply, and now it is impossible to eat food in the dining room.
“If earlier the patients were given eggs, butter and milk for breakfast, and they were satisfied, now they give out in grams, and not every day the patients can eat eggs and butter. These products should be daily in the diet of patients with tuberculosis. They bring very little milk and it is blended with water”, said one of the hospital’s patients to ACCA. “The meat used to be beef, now they bring buffalo meat of the lowest quality, vegetables of not the first freshness (fodder carrots and potatoes). Often there is no tea. Instead of tea they give stewed fruit from expired dried fruits or just boiled camel thorn. Compote must be filtered from worms found in dried fruits, bread rations have also been reduced, and the quality of bread itself has deteriorated significantly.”
According to our interlocutor, patients, who cannot be visited by relatives, are half-starved. “Prisoners, who can give a bribe to the administration of the institution, can cook their own food right in the ward. The situation with medicines is not the best. They come in insufficient quantities and have poor quality, but due to corruption and theft, almost nothing reaches the sick; relatives are forced to buy most of the medicines,” the hospital patient notes. “The big problem is the low qualification of the hospital’s medical staff and the level of corruption among the staff of this institution. Medicines intended for free distribution to patients are not given out by the hospital staff, but sold.
ACCA also became aware that the country’s authorities spent about a million US dollars on the purchase of medical equipment, but all devices are not uncovered due to the personnel’s fear of equipment breakdown.
“Injections to the patients are made with a single syringe. The buttocks of the patients are swollen and bruised. There are not enough places in the surgery, and therefore the patients are in the same room like herrings in a barrel,” the patient told ACCA. “Only in the surgical department there is a toilet in the building. All other toilets are outside, and there are no toilets, only cesspools; toilets in the building are intended only for staff.”
Particularly noteworthy is the problem of caring for bed patients. According to patients, the hospital has a special room for the paralyzed, who are not washed for days, and they lie in their feces. “The bed patients are washed every few days on the street with a water hose and left to dry in the blazing sun. They are beaten mercilessly for absolutely everything and they can’t even complain, just mumble and cry. Such patients practically do not survive in these conditions,” the patient said. “These bed patients are taken away all the parcels from relatives and sold to other patients. The hospital administration does not pay any attention to this situation. They bring food from the dining room for bed patients, one plate per person. All food is put in one plate (soup, second course, salad and bread). Compote or tea are brought in a plastic (often not washed) bottle. They feed sick people with such slops.”
Four buildings for tuberculosis patients stand separately and are fenced with barbed wire, in order to get from one department to another you need to give the officer a bribe. According to patients, despite such situation, patients with tuberculosis do not want to return to the colonies because the situation in the colonies is much worse. Many patients have been in the hospital for years and are doing everything possible to stay in the hospital for as long as possible.
“For example, a recovering patient takes sputum from a patient with an open form of tuberculosis and dries it. When the sputum dries, he grinds and inhales it,” the patient notes. “This is being done so just not to return to the colony.”
According to ACCA sources, in 2019 compared to previous years, the mortality rate in this institution increased sharply. If earlier up to 300 people died a year, in 2019 at least 700 prisoners died in this hospital, most of whom were diagnosed with tuberculosis.
The Government of Turkmenistan in every way impedes the organization of visits of UN special rapporteurs to the country. The Turkmen government has made the International Committee of the Red Cross leave the country.
