Israel Prison Service & its Medical Center

Information regarding the Israel Prison Service and its medical center
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

Many complaints regarding problems in receiving medical treatment, the prison conditions, and violence towards inmates reach Physicians for Human Rights-Israel from prisoners and detainees held in Israel Prison Service (IPS) detention centers.While the police allows Physicians for Human Rights-Israel to tour its centers, the IPS, responsible for the custody of prisoners, does all it can to stop outside review. IPS does not allow open tours of its centers, and allows only for visits by doctors or lawyers to specific inmates, arranged in advance, and they are not allowed to visit the prisoner’s cell or to inspect the conditions. Therefore Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’s information on the conditions is very limited, and arrives indirectly from analyzing data from testimonies and affidavits of prisoners who turn to the association.It seems, based on the prisoners’ complaints from various prisoners, that IPS does not respond properly to health problems of the prisoner.· Prisoners’ requests to be examined by the compound doctor are not, in many cases, answered within a reasonable amount of time.· Laboratory tests, MRI or a specialist examination outside of the prisoner are regularly delayed because of the steps involved in taking a prisoner outside of the compound.· In spite of the existence of a medical center in IPS, it cannot properly handle prisoners who suffer from chronic illnesses which require medical follow ups and periodical examinations and follow up on the affects of drug treatment.· IPS doctors are not specialist, as opposed to the norm today in community clinics of the HMOs (Sick Funds) where doctors are specialists in family medicine.· Like many patients outside of incarceration centers, prisoners too are usually not explained in a clear manner what the nature of their problem is, what is the treatment they are receiving and what are the prospects for the future. As opposed to patients who are not incarcerated the prisoners do not have the option of turning to another doctor in the event that they are not satisfied with the prison doctor and his treatment. Also, the option they have to file complaints regarding the medical treatment in limited and pass through the prison staff, which can then treat the prisoners unfairly in light of their complaint.In addition to all the above-mentioned problems, there is no medical supervision on the part of the Ministry of Health of the medical system of IPS and its centers despite the large variety of medical cases it handles.IPS Medical CenterPrisoners which suffer from health problems which do not allow for them to be held in the regular prisons but who do not require hospitalization are held in the IPS Medical Center which is located within the compound in Ramla. In spite of the many complaints regarding the inferior medical treatment and neglect in the center that have accumulated since 1997 and until today, the IPS has refused to allow Physicians for Human Rights-Israel doctors into the medical center to assess the quality of treatment given there. The claim is that Physicians for Human Rights-Israel does not have the legal status to do so.Due to this, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel decided to open a project whose goal to is to gather information by using questionnaires given to prisoners held in the IPS Medical Center, via lawyers, in order to reveal the faults and bring them to the public’s knowledge. Hopefully this will bring about external professional review of this institution.In March 2002 the report “These Worldly Bars” was published by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel- the report described the medical institute as one nearly without any medical or other review, it also described many cases of poor medical treatment, nursing care given by working prisoners with no training in doing this sort of work, intervention by non medical personal into the treatment, problems in transferring patients to outside centers, neglect of patience requiring nursing care and those in rehabilitation, threatening patients who complain and sanitary and living conditions which are unfit for humans. The report analyzed the legal status of the ill prisoners in all IPS centers, according to which they are not entitled to health services under the National Health Insurance act, as are all residents of Israel, but rather from the public health ordinance- a situation which leads to the medical services being given by medical staffs which are bowed to the authority of non-medical bodies. The reports points out this structure as being the root problem, since it inevitably leads to the situation of dual loyalties on part of the medical staff- loyalty on the one hand to the institute that employs them and is powerful, and on the hand loyalty to the doctor’s obligation to treat the patient. The report recommended not only to investigate the incidents which were described in the report and to correct the faults which caused them, but also to close down the IPS Medical Center and to transfer its patients to the relevant medical institutes, and to set up a investigation committee which would make recommendations regarding the structure and hierarchy in the IPS Medical Center.The publication of the report aroused public interest, and was followed by the filing of a High Court petition by Physicians for Human Rights-Isreal and lawyers from Adam, which focused on the recommendations of the report and the demands to set up a medical review committee for the IPS Medical Center.The High Court agreed to some of the demands, and instructure that a committee be established and that it include representatives from the Mnistry of Health, IPS, IMA (Israel Medical Association) and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. The committee filed its recommendations and demanded the creation of new review systems to supervise the medical services given by IPS, additional training to the doctors of IPS and the entire medical staff at IPS, the creation of new systems to handle complaints by prisoners regarding their medical treatment, improvement of the referral system of prisoners to specialists which are not part of the IPS clinics on a regular basis, better supervision of the prison conditions and the care of prisoners needing nursing care who reside in the IPS Medical Center. As of today, the matter is still in court.