KEY POINTS:
A father whose suspicions were aroused by a person allegedly posing as a
hospital employee has been praised for taking action that may have prevented a baby being snatched.
A 20-year-old woman will have psychiatric tests after being charged with trying to take a 2-day-old baby from Christchurch's private St George's Hospital on Wednesday.
It is alleged the woman entered the rooms of two mothers at the hospital
posing as an employee.
In the first case, the baby's father became suspicious after being asked
to let the baby be taken away for blood tests that had already been
completed.
"I can say we are very grateful to the father ... that alerted our midwives to the unusual behaviour and events unfolded from there," said St George's Hospital chief executive Tony Hunter.
"Among other things, our staff went looking for a particular person."
The woman allegedly entered the room of the second mother and tried to
take the baby from the room.
But she was detained by staff and police were called.
A woman appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with attempting to deprive a mother of the possession of her child.
She was ordered to be held at Christchurch's Hillmorton Hospital, where
she will have a psychiatric assessment, before reappearing in court this month.
Family of the woman, including a man believed to be her husband, were in
court to support her. Her name, and that of the mother and child at the
hospital, were suppressed.
Mr Hunter said his staff "acted fantastically" when the drama unfolded. "It just endorses the fact that while you hope these sort of events never happen, you do nonetheless have to plan for them."
He said he had never seen something like this before under his management, but it was not unknown in the maternity sector.
It was impossible to monitor everyone who came and went from the
hospital.
It had 12,000 or 13,000 patients a year, and each might have four or five visitors.