Kyrgyzstan: patients of a neuropsychiatric hospital are malnourished and live in unsanitary conditions
Foodstuffs are lying on the floor. The cook’s sanitary book is expired. The dishwasher doesn’t know the rules for washing dishes. This is not the whole list of violations that the employees of the Regional office of the National Center of Kyrgyzstan for the Prevention of Torture discovered when they arranged a sudden all-round check at the Kadamjay psycho-neurological social institution under the Ministry of Public Health.
The inspectors revealed gross violations of the conditions for storing food, preparing food for patients and sanitary requirements. So, food in the canteen of a closed institution lies on the floor, while according to sanitary standards, they should be located on a special shelf or at a height of 10 centimeters from the ground. Dry tea in the warehouse is stored in a plastic flour bag instead of a paper container or bag. Due to violation of storage conditions, products absorb moisture, which leads to a deterioration in their quality.
“The wires of the kitchen equipment are worn out and sagged; fire safety rules are not followed, which endangers the health and life of kitchen workers, where constant humidity is observed due to fumes. The room is in poor sanitary condition, wet cleaning is not carried out, the doors are covered with dust. The dishwasher doesn’t know how to wash dishes. All this together leads to an increase in the frequency of various diseases. In addition, the sanitary book of the cook is expired, and the other kitchen and laundry workers don’t have it at all,” was noted by the Regional representative office of the National Center of Kyrgyzstan for the Prevention of Torture in Batken region.
Imported meat, fruits, vegetables are brought into the warehouse without certificates of conformity and veterinary control. Vegetables (carrots, potatoes and onions) are stored in unsanitary conditions. Upon examination, there was no fish, sausage, cheese, butter, biscuits, sweets and condensed milk in the warehouse. According to the storekeeper, these products are out of stock, and the application will be re-posted on the government procurement website.
There were other violations in the warehouse: there is no first-aid kit in the room, fire safety measures were not followed, there is no photo or seal in the storekeeper’s sanitary book.
The check also showed that the patients of the Kadamjay neuropsychiatric social institution are undernourished. The employees of the National Center took a plate of food from the table and weighed it on the control scales. Despite the fact that the documents clearly state that each patient is given 500 grams of soup, in fact, the underweight of each plate is 100-120 grams. On average, 20 kg less food was prepared for 212 people.
“The chef of canteen didn’t provide the patients with sufficient nutrition. According to her, each loaf of bread delivered to the institution should be 500 grams, but when weighed it, it turned out that the weight of the bread was 40 grams less than the declared norm. So, patients received 16 loaves less per day,” the experts state.
There are also claims to living conditions. In the rooms, the beds are placed close to each other with a distance of only 10 cm. In the bedrooms, there is poor lighting, the ventilating shafts are bricked. There are no thermometers. The sanitary standards are not observed.
In the 1st building, toothbrushes are stored in a closet mixed with clothes. The employees also noticed a knife lying on the bedside table. The attendant couldn’t explain who and why had left it in full view. In the 3rd building, where women live, there were about 30 toothbrushes in one box, which doesn’t meet sanitary and hygienic requirements and can lead to various infectious diseases. In the bathhouse, the floor is tiled with ceramic tiles, which causes people to slip and fall while bathing, endangering their health and lives.
The representative office of the National Center of Kyrgyzstan for the Prevention of Torture in Batken region added that the patients of the institution had previously been tested in a mobile medical laboratory. The examination revealed that 10 patients have sexual disease, 19 – viral/wpnd one person was HIV-positive.
