UK COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM HAEMATOLOGY DEPARTMENT BELONGING TO NURSES http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED19%20Jun%202006%2014%3A17%3A25%3A717

Nurses appeal after laptops are stolen

19 June 2006 14:17

Three hospital nurses were today appealing for the return of their laptop computers, which were stolen in a break-in over the weekend.

The £1,000 Ergo computers were locked in the haematology department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

But clinical nurse specialist Claire Atterbury and her colleagues Jayne Miller and Lesley Grimmer arrived at work this morning to find the machines had gone.

"We want them back, they're no use to anyone else, " said Sister Atterbury.

"They actually ripped them off the desks, they were locked to the desks and one has been damaged.

"I've got a presentation to do to some nurses in Rome next week. Now I'm going to have to redo it.

"Sister Atterbury said patient care in the short-term would not be affected and the thief or thieves would not be able to access confidential medical records.

But she added: "In the longer term they contain all sorts of information, there's years and years of work on there.

"We're going to have to replace it, it's going to take a long, long time. "We're going to have to do more time on the office and less time at the bedside. But we can't do that so it's just more time at the office.

"It's really sad. The hospital didn't pay for them, the patients raised the money so they're the ones who've been kicked in the teeth.

"Sister Atterbury said anyone finding the computers could return them to the hospital's main reception.

"We want them back," she said. "They're no use to anybody else."

Police are now investigating the theft.