Treatment behind bars

Barbed wire
surrounds this hospitals, and watchtowers look over it in every
corner. The
windows are barred, and out of its entire staff only the chief
doctor is
allowed to use a cell phone. The hospital treats  patients 
from Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Chernihiv region and Kyiv
city as it is
the only hospital for prisoners from these regions. 

The Bucha
prison hospital, located in colony No 85, has 128 patients and
58  medical staff,
including 18 doctors. Dr.
Volodymyr Chepilko, chief of the medical department, who spent
over 20 years
here, said many of his patients have better treatment here than
they used to
have when they were free. “Many of them 
didn’t even have  patient
records,”
he said.

He said
that many of the prisoners suffer from hepatitis B and C, some
have HIV, but he
assured that people with tuberculosis, which is the biggest
health threat in
prison, are brought to another clinic.     

Dr.
Chepilko remembers, that when he started 
working in this hospital 20 years ago, he noticed the
that lamps were
often missing inside the building, as drug addicts used them to
cook up drugs.
These days, Dr. Chepilko claims there are no drug users in his
hospital, but
somewhat hesitantly.          

Sergiy
Vysovel, 47, convicted to 4 years for a burglary attempt, sits
on his bed
recovering after an operation on his stomach. He came here for
treatment from a
hospital in Chernihiv region. He admits that the hospital is a
better place to
live than a normal prison. “It’s definitely quieter here,” he
said.

But for
lawyer Oleg Nikolyshyn, 30, there is very little difference. He
has been
staying in Kyiv’s notorious Lukyanivsky pre-trial detention
center for nearly
two years awaiting trial on charges of car theft, which he
denies, saying it
was cooked up by the police. He was diagnosed with blood cancer
during his
detention. “Doctors can do nothing to help me as it is not a
specialized
(oncology) hospital” he said.

Nikolyshyn
is waiting for the first court hearing on his case, hoping that
the European
Court of Human Rights to defend him.

Story by
Oksana Grytsenko