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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Tauranga Hospital staff frustrated after theft and vandalism leaves 7 cars out of action

Bay of Plenty Times
29 Jul, 2022 11:51 PM3 mins to read

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Hospital staff say seven cars were still out of action following a spate of reported vehicle thefts and vandalism. Photo / Getty Images

Hospital staff say seven cars were still out of action following a spate of reported vehicle thefts and vandalism. Photo / Getty Images

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air

By Tamara Poi-Ngawhika, Te Rito Cadet Journalist

Tauranga Hospital clinical nurses are feeling "frustration, disappointment and anger" as seven hospital vehicles were still out-of-action following a spate of thefts and vandalism.

Clinical nurse manager Pamela Barke at Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty said her team was down by seven vehicles, which had put a strain on their services.

The vehicles were either reported stolen from hospital grounds or damaged by vandals earlier this month.

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"The continued efforts of individuals to deliberately cause damage is hugely disappointing to us and our wider community," Barke said.

"Our community has a feeling of enormous frustration, disappointment and anger.

"We don't have pool cars sitting idle waiting to be used, our vehicles are operational pretty much the whole time.

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"We have had to borrow and negotiate alternative solutions with other services to get through this."

The latest incident happened on July 18 when two vehicles were reported stolen from the hospital carpark.

Three vehicles were also reported stolen in May when windows were also broken on all the remaining vehicles in the hospital carpark.

"The damage to the cars onsite means they will be out of action for an extended length of time whilst parts are sourced and the repairs are undertaken."

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Barke said the teams have kept the services running despite the trouble.

"I want to stress that none of our clients have missed out on services but that is only because of our wonderful staff.

"We have had to rearrange workloads to accommodate the situation and staff have worked additional hours to make up for time lost navigating it.

"There are police reports to fill out, insurance forms, and internal incident reports, which are all necessary but eat into the time when we should be concentrating on our client services.

"It is an additional workload and stress for our staff when we are already in our busiest time of the year, winter; and we have the added layer of Covid-19 on top of that as well."

Barke said it was not easy to find other vehicles, especially at such short notice.

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"And it all has a knock-on impact, there is an additional cost to all of this as well as the enormous frustration and inconvenience for our staff and clients."

Barke said her team has focused on securing their premises following the thefts.

"I also want to reinforce that we take security very seriously, including regular patrols and CCTV cameras.

"The determination of some individuals to keep causing damage is extremely frustrating when we are trying to look after the health of our communities."

A police spokesperson said police recovered two vehicles abandoned in Mount Maunganui on July 21 and were still investigating the series of incidents at Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty.

"We will be looking at all possible avenues of inquiry, including if these incidents are connected, but there is nothing to suggest that is the case at this stage."

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Inquiries were ongoing to find those involved and information can be given to police via 105.

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