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Couple Caught Pilfering Hospital Food
Couple Caught Pilfering Hospital Food
A couple aged in
their 30s used a wheelchair and a blanket to
take
patients' food from unattended food trolleys and
fridges tonight at
Waikato Hospital.
The European woman
with sandy, longish hair sat in the wheelchair pushed
by
a Maori male and stashed sandwiches and plates of food on
her knees
covering them with a blanket to evade
detection.
When challenged by kitchen staff delivering
the food about 6.15pm, the
couple scarpered leaving
behind the wheelchair and remains of the food.
A patient
in the cardiac care unit earlier reported some of her food
was
missing from the ward fridge.
It marked another
busy night for Waikato Hospital duty management
and
security guards.
Staff found a young Hamilton man
with gang connections, issued with a
trespass notice last
month on strict conditions requiring a family
member to
accompany him on any visits, in the hospital on his own.
After a challenge from the duty manager, he ran off.
Security guards
found him hiding in public toilets in a
ward.
After consulting police, the teenager got a full
trespass notice and can
no longer visit Waikato Hospital.
It marks a busy period for hospital security. A drunken
patient punched
and kicked one of Waikato Hospital's
senior emergency department doctors
last week and a
fortnight earlier three teenage gang members had
hospital
trespass notices slapped on them for intimidating staff
and
patients while visiting a friend.
And just before
Christmas last year two mobile breast pumps worth
more
than $2000 each went missing from Waikato Hospital's
newborn intensive
care unit. Nurses said they were sure
the theft was intentional. Police
never recovered the
breast pumps.
Health Waikato chief operating officer Jan
Adams last week said a review
of visiting hours, boosted
security including the possibility of police
presence on
campus, were all being discussed by hospital management.
She
called on the community to help apprehend those
abusing the system and
wasting valuable taxpayer dollars
intended for the sick and recovering
patients in
hospital.
ends
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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