State Duma deputies voted for amendments to the legislation, eliminating the need to create separate and independent services to protect the rights of patients in neuropsychiatric boarding schools. The corresponding bill was adopted in the second and third readings.
Amendments will be made to the law “On psychiatric care and guarantees of the rights of citizens in its provision.” In particular, one of the amendments abolishes Art. 38 of this law, according to which the state creates a service for the protection of the rights of patients who are in medical organizations providing psychiatric care in inpatient conditions, independent of the executive authorities in the field of health protection. Representatives of such a service protect the rights of PNI patients, accept their complaints, resolve issues with the management of boarding schools or send appeals to authorities, including the court.
In addition, Article 46 will also be amended. Until now, it has been prescribed the control of public associations over the observance of the rights of citizens in the provision of psychiatric care. Now it spells out the conditions for protecting the rights of citizens suffering from mental disorders. Among other things, the article will say that the protection of the rights of such citizens, including those in the PNI, will be carried out by regional authorities, ombudsmen, the Public Chamber, public monitoring commissions, state legal bureaus and lawyers, and public associations.
According to RBC, the other day at a meeting of the State Duma, during which the relevant amendments were approved, Nyuta Federmesser, the founder of the charitable foundation for helping hospices Vera, was present. She opposed the abolition of Art. 38 and against certain amendments. According to Federmesser, if Article 38 is abandoned, Article 46, even taking into account the proposed changes, will not adequately protect the rights of PNI patients.
The deputies, having listened to the objections of the public, nevertheless voted for the amendments. As one of the arguments, they cited the fact that the changes proposed by the public activists were not supported by the State Legal Department of the President.
Later, Federmesser published a post on social networks, in which, among other things, she spoke about a prepared letter to President Vladimir Putin asking him to veto amendments to the law “On Psychiatric Care”. According to her, the letter was signed by 40,000 people, mostly relatives of PNI patients. It was sent to the President.
Source: Rosbalt
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