The organisation Human Rights Action (HRA) is expressing serious concern about the ill-treatment of a female patient at the Special Psychiatric Hospital “Dobrota” in Kotor (hereinafter: the Hospital) and is appealing to the Ministry of Health and the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Kotor to thoroughly investigate the actions of the medical technician suspected of ill-treatment, as well as those of the Director of the Hospital, the Protector of Patients’ Rights and other staff members who participated in the cover-up of this case. Yesterday, the HRA dispatched a letter to the Minister of Health Vojislav Šimun regarding the above, and informed the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture or Degrading and Inhuman Treatment or Punishment (CPT) about this case.

In the opinion of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro (hereinafter: Ombudsman), it is stated, among other things, that on 26 December 2023, a nurse employed at the Hospital filed a complaint with the Ombudsman, stating that a female patient was “viciously beaten by medical technician XX; that the case was reported to the Protector of Patients’ Rights XX; that the nurse, most likely in agreement with the Director of the institution XX, later changed her testimony, i.e. provided an incorrect statement in which she wrote that female patients had engaged in a mutual fight; that many reports, both written and oral, have already been submitted to the competent authorities against the above mentioned medical technician; that for the past year said technician has been coming to work intoxicated, as witnessed on numerous occasions by the Director personally; that after the disputed event, the Director of the institution sent the medical technician on vacation, following which he returned to the very department in which the unfortunate event had taken place, and that he had at least five disciplinary reports submitted against him, including those that merited expulsion from the institution”.

The opinion further mentions serious shortcomings in the work of the institution and the actions of the Director and the Protector of Patients’ Rights. It describes attempts to obstruct and cover up this case and states that “the Ombudsman was denied any response from the Hospital in this regard”.

Unfortunately, we are witnesses to the repeated ill-treatment of patients in this hospital, while the Ministry of Health is doing nothing to prevent it.

The HRA has asked the Minister of Health, Vojislav Šimun, to inform the public about the measures and activities the Ministry has undertaken since learning about this event; whether disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the Director of the Hospital, Aleksandar Mačić, who was obliged to report this case to the Police Directorate or the Prosecutor’s Office immediately upon learning of it, but failed to do so; whether disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the technician who ill-treated the patient, and if they were, whether he was immediately suspended from work until the end of the proceedings; whether it is true that five disciplinary reports had already been filed against this technician, and, if this is true, what were their outcomes.

We remind of the scandalous case in which an employee of the Hospital, D.P., was previously convicted by a first-instance judgment of ill-treating 7 patients in 2019, only to be acquitted in the end because the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution expired due to ineffective prosecution of the incident. To make the situation even more absurd, the employee received EUR 24,000 as compensation for unpaid wages, as well as EUR 5,000 for damages to his honour and reputation.

The HRA also addressed the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Kotor, which informed us that the case was opened based on the delivered opinion of the Ombudsman and that it is currently in the preliminary investigation phase. We thus conclude that the Director of the Hospital did not report the case to the prosecutor’s office, despite the fact that he was obliged to do so immediately upon learning about it.

The HRA also notified this case to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture or Degrading and Inhuman Treatment or Punishment (CPT), which, during its first visit to Montenegro in 2004, noticed certain problems (and repeatedly mentioned them in 2008, 2013 and 2017) in the work of the Hospital, which are still relevant today (e.g. the “social patients” and the need for deinstitutionalisation; forensic patients and the Court Department; securing and accommodating forensic patients outside of the Court Department, which negatively affects the freedom of movement of other patients and creates serious problems in the work of the Hospital (the recent case of a patient who escaped and was then beaten by another patient), the Hospital’s material situation, etc.). The CPT will be making an official visit to Montenegro next year, and we expect it to include the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Dobrota in the programme of the visit.