- 31 At Kos Prison, there had been no rural doctor since 9 September 2021 and health care duties were carried out by a cardiologist (three hours a week) and a GP (one hour twice a week). They were supported by a prisoner working as an assistant nurse, who had a first aid certificate and who appeared to work seven days a week, preparing the medication for dispensing, carrying out the SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests and maintaining the medical records. The provision of tele-medicine with a hospital in Attica was expected to start in 2022. 58. The situation at Korydallos Men’s Prison had not improved since 2019. There was a cardiologist who acted as a health care co-ordinator and who was employed on a full-time basis. He was supported by four part-time GPs who each visited the establishment for two hours per week and two additional GPs who visited once a week for seven hours between 16h00 to 23h00. In addition, there was a pharmacist and 14 medical doctors33 contracted to provide specialist services once a week. However, there were only two full-time nurses (both of whom were on medical leave at the time of the visit) and five prison officers assigned to the medical unit, who reportedly had no medical training. One dentist34 was present twice a week for a total of five hours. In addition, five prisoners were working as medical orderlies, due to the lack of health care staff. For an establishment of 1,885 inmates this is totally insufficient. 59. The lack of health care staff at Nigrita Prison was particularly alarming. There was only one nurse working three 12-hour shifts every week, which meant at nights, weekends, Mondays, Thursdays and on public holidays there was no health care professional in the prison. The nurse was supported by three prisoners working as assistant nurses who had access to all premises, medication and documentation. A doctor from the community health care centre visited the prison on a rota basis once a week for five hours (usually Tuesdays) which undermined any continuity of care. The waiting time to see a doctor was approximately two weeks. Psychiatric consultations took place once a week online which, although an improvement with six to eight patients seen each week, was far too little to meet the needs of the population.35 A dentist visited twice a week. Clearly, such staffing levels are totally inadequate for an official prison population of 600 and even more when occupancy levels were above 700 persons. Moreover, the delegation learned that access to specialist care at Nigrita Prison was becoming more difficult as such specialisations as ophthalmology, oncology and gastroenterology were no longer available in the nearby city of Serres but required transfers to Thessaloniki. 33 34 35 Including a urologist, a haematologist, a surgeon, a pulmonologist, a neurologist, an orthopaedist, three psychiatrists (two of whom had not worked since July 2021 and the third had held no consultations in October and November 2021), a dermatologist, an endocrinologist, an ophthalmologist and a cardiologist. A second dentist had been dismissed after being caught smuggling a mobile phone into the prison. There was a waiting list of 38 patients to see the psychiatrist; it should be noted that roughly 35% of the population were persons with substance use problems and that 200 persons in the prison were receiving psychotropic medication.