- 14 3. Patients’ living conditions 25. The accommodation rooms in all of the establishments visited offered patients good access to natural and artificial light, temperature, ventilation, and some limited space for personal belongings. Patients also had ready access to adequate sanitary facilities. Patients’ rooms and furnishings were generally of a good standard, except for those at Athina Clinic and in most wards at Dromokaiteio Hospital, which were rather poorly furnished and austere. There was little if any personalisation of living areas in evidence in any of the establishments visited. Further, at Athina Clinic the multiple-occupancy rooms were accommodating up to 7 patients each. A number of them were somewhat cramped; more importantly, they lacked privacy. The CPT recommends that the authorities take steps to ensure that patients in any psychiatric establishment enjoy sufficient privacy, in particular in terms of the number of patients accommodated in each room. Further, patients’ living areas should be suitably furnished and efforts should be made to personalise them. 26. As already mentioned, overcrowding at all three psychiatric units of general hospitals visited meant that auxiliary beds were regularly placed in the corridor. This was reportedly a regular occurrence throughout the Greek mental health care system. The strain on space and services, and the impact on patients and staff, of long-term overcrowding should not be underestimated. The CPT recommends that a strategy be adopted to end systemic overcrowding in psychiatric units in Greece. In particular, persons who do not require in-patient psychiatric care should not be placed in such care institutions (see paragraphs 19 and 20). 27. It was, however, positive that patients had access to parklands for much of the day at Dromokaiteio and Sotiria Hospitals and to a large garden for several hours per day at the Athina Clinic. Most patients at the Psychiatric Unit at Gennimatas Hospital had free access to a small, concrete exercise yard, offering no shelter from inclement weather; some patients needed to be accompanied there by staff. The CPT recommends that this yard be taken out of service and that patients be afforded access to the gardens at Gennimatas Hospital. No outdoor exercise facility was available at the Unit at Evangelismos Hospital. Since the visit, the Greek authorities have informed the CPT, by letter of 7 June 2018, that they have called upon the Hospital to remedy, as a matter of priority, the lack of outdoor activity for patients hospitalised in the Unit. The CPT would like to be informed of the concrete steps taken to ensure that all patients at the Psychiatric Unit of Evangelismos Hospital are offered daily access to a dedicated outdoor exercise area, adapted to the needs of patients.