By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE
ROTORUA - Lifesaving equipment for babies has gone missing from Rotorua Hospital's maternity unit.
Over the past three months two laryngoscopes, which are used to clear the airways and revive newborn babies in trouble, have disappeared.
"They're of absolutely no use or value to anyone apart from our staff and the babies we use them on," clinical midwife leader Sarah McMillan said yesterday.
She was at a loss to understand why the vital equipment, with expensive fibre-optic attachments, would be stolen.
"I think it's a bit of a gadget thing."
The losses were discovered during routine checks. All emergency equipment is inspected three times a day, at each change of shift.
Ms McMillan said equipment was also checked before and after a birth.
Maternity staff had to chase up mothers or people who had been in the birthing rooms with them, she said.
A third laryngoscope was returned following calls to a woman who then questioned relatives.
But such approaches placed staff in a difficult position when people took offence.
Ms McMillan urged anyone who had the missing laryngoscopes, worth more than $800, to return them to the front desk at the hospital.
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