The right of convicts to health care

Abstract

The Article examines the application of imprisonment to persons, which restricts their ability to exercise a number of rights and freedoms, but the state undertakes to provide such persons with access to medical care and treatment. However, the procedure for exercising and ensuring the right to health care has its peculiarities due to the nature of criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment. Despite the great attention of scientists to the definition and legislative consolidation of human and civil rights and freedoms in Ukraine, the complexity of the task of administrative and legal support and establishing guarantees of the right to health of citizens sentenced to imprisonment requires more detailed study. The state of ensuring that convicts exercise their right to health care and adequate medical care has recently been extremely unfavourable. According to prosecutors, the main shortcomings in the organization of health care are insufficient staff, lack of necessary medicines and emergency medical care, untimely detection, diagnosis and prevention of diseases, especially chronic ones and inability to provide proper treatment in remand prisons. The system of health care facilities that can provide medical care in general and special order should be specifically defined, as these aspects are rather chaotically regulated in the criminal-executive legislation. In addition, the main problem of the imperfect functioning of the program to guarantee the right of the convict to health care is the insufficient material and financial support of penitentiary institutions, as most of them are in extremely unsatisfactory condition and objectively unable to provide normal living conditions.