International experts of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organization suggest that the doctors working in penitentiaries should be transferred under the subordination of the Health Ministry so as to ensure the independence of the medical practice, Svetlana Doltu, division head at the Department of Penitentiary Institutions, has told Info-Prim Neo. According to Doltu, an alternative solution proposed by experts for guaranteeing the independence of the medical practice is to set up a medical department under the direct subordination of the Ministry of Justice so as to ensure independence from the Department of Penitentiary Institutions. Another solution is to implement a mixed model so that the primary medical care services are managed by the Ministry of Justice, while the specialized ones by the Health Ministry. Svetlana Doltu said the experts propose that this transfer should be carried out during 18 months. “But we must preserve all the concessions enjoyed by the medical personnel of prisons so as not to deepen the crises,” she stated. A working group was constituted to examine these recommendations. By December, it will put forward a plan for implementing the justice sector reform strategy. A number of visits will be paid until then to determine the transfer method and the cost of the reform. The proposals were made in connection with the endorsement of the justice sector reform strategy and the plan of action for 2011-2016 for implementing it.