Staff at hospital arrested after huge thefts

An alert hospital pharmacist got suspicious when he heard glass breaking around 20:00 on 29 August, after hours for regular personnel. He investigated from a window in the nurses’ residence and saw someone in the dark carrying what looked like medical equipment. He called a fellow pharmacist, who contacted the hospital security. They, in turn, alerted the police.
They then went to check and saw three men outside the building, who immediately fled when they realised someone had spotted them.
The police arrested one near the mortuary and another near the pharmacy. Detective sergeants Wynand Kruger and Lukie Mathikge arrested the third man, who had left his Renault Scenic at the scene, at his home in Carletonville the following morning.
They discovered stolen blood pressure monitors in the Renault and soon established that the suspects were a cleaner and two handymen working at the hospital. They also found numerous larger machines the men had allegedly carried out of the hospital building.
Another detective, Sgt Malau Tshifango, started investigating the case and soon linked the three suspects to other thefts at the hospital earlier this year.
From February to last week, equipment, including eight blood pressure machines valued at around R450,000 each, was stolen.
The three suspects appeared in the Oberholzer Magistrate’s Court on theft charges on 31 August. The case was postponed to Wednesday, 6 September, for a formal bail
application.
By print time, the Herald had not yet established whether the three men had received bail.
Following the incident, the Herald asked the communication officer, Mr Mathabo Letsoalo, whether the hospital would take disciplinary steps against the men and investigate how they had previously smuggled stolen equipment. Visitors to the hospital know the security personnel at the gate always check vehicles when they leave the grounds.
“Carletonville Hospital management was made aware of the equipment that has being stolen over the past few months and as such a strategic plan was developed. Management had therefore received a tip-off; together with the SAPS and our hospital security we have successfully apprehended three staff members who were actively engaged in an act of stealing equipment. The three staff members work for both Carletonville Hospital and the Department of Infrastructure Development. The hospital is not in a position to comment further since the matter is currently handled by the Criminal Justice System,” Letsoalo responded on Wednesday.