- 55 As regards the nursing complement, 11 of the 14 posts were filled at the time of the visit. Typically, this resulted in four nurses on duty during weekday mornings and two in the afternoons, and at weekends one in the mornings and two in the afternoons. At night, there is only ever one nurse on duty who, in addition to the hospital, has to provide cover for Korydallos Men’s and Women’s Prisons as well as for the psychiatric hospital (i.e. more than 2,500 prisoners). As a result of the lack of nurses, a number of prisoners were employed as auxiliaries, not only to undertake janitorial duties, but also to provide care to patients such as assistance with feeding and personal hygiene. The delegation received detailed accounts inter alia of how fellow patients had provided care for a cancer patient in the period prior to his death in the hospital in February 2015, and how he was not provided with pain relieving medication until just before his death. It also came across patients who had been neglected and not provided the follow-up care required, such as a prisoner with a post-surgery lax anal sphincter causing him faecal incontinence; once his case was brought to the attention of the doctor, steps were taken to address his problem. Otherwise, nursing staff only had time to distribute medication (including at Korydallos Women’s Prison) and undertake complex dressings. 91. At the end of the visit, the CPT’s delegation requested that the Greek authorities, as a matter of urgency, undertake a full review of the prison hospital and put in place a plan to resurrect it as a place of care, where prisoners are treated for their illnesses and provided the necessary care in decent conditions. If this review has not yet been conducted, given the very serious right to life issues under Article 2 ECHR as well as the serious ill-treatment concerns under Article 3 ECHR, the CPT recommends that immediate steps are taken to carry out this review. Further, the Committee wishes to be informed of the outcome of the review and the follow-up steps planned to remedy the current situation. 6. Other issues a. prison staff 92. The serious shortage of prison staff in all establishments visited continues to be a major obstacle in ensuring the proper functioning of prisons. For example, at Diavata Prison staffing levels in relation to the number of prisoners have been reduced from 1:4 in 2007 to 1:40 in 2015 with only 15 officers on duty for 600 prisoners (see also section 2 above for numbers of prison officers on duty in other prisons). The CPT must repeat that an inadequate number of custodial staff renders prisons insecure for both prisoners and staff; in particular, it impedes any efforts to maintain effective control, which leads to stronger groups of prisoners being able to exercise their powers unchecked over other inmates (see section 2 above). As was the case in 2013, the CPT’s delegation found that prison staff in many instances had to rely upon the leaders of these groups to maintain order in several of the prisons visited. Without sufficient staffing levels, it is also not possible to offer prisoners an acceptable regime thus reinforcing the warehousing phenomenon.