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Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin PA WIRE/Niall Carson
FOI

Thieves hit children's hospital THIRTEEN TIMES for toys, games and bed buzzers

The incidents happened between January of 2014 and June of this year.

A DUBLIN CHILDREN’S hospital has called the Gardaí 13 times over thefts in a period of a year and a half, TheJournal.ie can reveal.

These happened at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin in south Dublin.

In the period examined, gardaí were called out to the hospital on a regular basis, sometimes as much as twice a month.

During the summer there were reports of facilities at the hospital being restricted because of these thefts.

How often do these happen? 

The figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act cover a period from January 2014 up to June 2015.

The busiest period for robberies from the hospital was the first six months of last year, during which time the gardaí were called out on seven occasions.

So far this year, there have been three reports of theft from the hospital, two in February and one in May.

Previous incidents

Speaking to Today FM’s The Anton Savage Show in July, an individual called Philip from Donegal (who wished to keep his second name anonymous) spoke about the number of incidents at the hospital. 

“This seems to be an ongoing problem in the hospital. My niece has been visiting that hospital unfortunately for the past 16 years. They’ve given her excellent care. Everybody in it, they’ve been very, very good to her,” he said.

Philip went on to say that a range of items had been taken, including the buzzers from children’s beds.

Has society sunk that far that people are stealing the buzzers from the poor sick children in the hospitals. There has to be some explanation for it. There has to be some reason for it.

Air-conditioning units, gaming consoles and children’s toys were also named as items that had been stolen from the hospital.

Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin were contacted for comment but did not respond in time for publication. 

Read: Someone’s been stealing toys from a children’s hospital

Also: Doctor accused of ‘inappropriate’ womb removals breaks down during testimony

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