The attitude towards children in the Chernihiv Anti-Tuberculosis Dispensary by junior medical staff needs to change

“Work will definitely be carried out with junior medical staff so that the attitude towards child patients is based on the principles of respect for the rights of the child,” representatives of the administration of the Chernihiv Regional Anti-Tuberculosis Dispensary assured during a visit to the institution of a monitoring group consisting of a representative of the Commissioner’s Secretariat Olena Temchenko, the regional coordinator of the Commissioner in Chernihiv region Alla Lepekha, and public representatives Serhiy Burov and Viktor Tarasov.

The visit consisted of two parts: the first – to the children’s department of the dispensary in the evening, the second – to the departments where persons taken into custody and palliative patients are located.

The monitors concluded that there was a practice of mistreatment of patients in the children’s department of the hospital by some junior medical staff. In particular, the use of obscene language and sometimes physical abuse of children, which occurred mainly in the evening.

It is worth noting that the dispensary has introduced internal monitoring of the study of patients’ needs – periodic anonymous surveys of adult patients. An analysis and response to comments is being carried out. Thus, rooms for visitors have been equipped according to the recommendations of patients, and round-the-clock access to hot water in all departments is provided. However, the children’s department is not covered by such surveys. During the visit, the public monitors expressed their willingness to provide methodological assistance for organizing internal monitoring and training junior medical staff on issues of respecting children’s rights.

At the time of the visit, 31 children were being treated in the children’s department, only two of whom were with their mothers. Children of different ages: six children under 3 years old, nine under 6 years old, the rest are older. Mostly children from families who find themselves in difficult life circumstances and who are not visited by their parents and relatives. During the day, children are taught in equipped classrooms, in the evenings, with one teacher for all. On weekends, only a nurse and two nannies are with the children, they are taken out for a walk only once a day, and not all the children. The playroom is being renovated, so it is difficult to organize leisure time for children of different ages, they are almost always in the corridor. However, this cannot explain the improper behavior of junior medical staff, which the children themselves spoke about.

The problem of observing children’s rights at the state level is the lack of a medical protocol for treating children with tuberculosis in Ukraine.

The institution has a department with two wards for 8 patients, where people with infectious tuberculosis are sent from the pre-trial detention center. It is located on the last fourth floor. Since there is no playground for them, patients do not walk in the fresh air at all. Some of them have been in the ward without access to fresh air for more than six months.

Treatment in the dispensary lasts from several months to a year, and for certain categories of patients – up to two years. Involuntary hospitalization is practically absent, since the police do not provide assistance in executing court decisions, and doctors cannot hospitalize such patients on their own.

The ceiling of the upper floor wards is covered with mold, the roof needs immediate repair. The furniture is old, the tables and bedside tables are broken, the floor has holes, the covering needs to be replaced.

Based on the results of the monitoring visit, the Commissioner for Human Rights is preparing response acts that will be sent to the leadership of the Ministry of Health and the Chernihiv Regional State Administration.