San Fernando CID detectives are investigating the disappearance of a $.5 million ultrasound machine from the San Fernando General Hospital. The T&T Guardian learned yesterday the machine, which was removed from the operating theatre on the second floor of the new wing, had been missing since before the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday.
Acting chief executive officer of the South West Regional Health Authority, Dr Shivanan Gopeesingh, confirmed yesterday the machine had been missing for the last two weeks and an official report had been lodged with the San Fernando Police. However, Gopeesingh, who last week took over from chief executive officer Anil Gosine, said he was not fully apprised of the details.
Another hospital official said an internal investigation had to be done to determine whether the machine had in fact been stolen before filing a report with the police. The official added: “It was stolen from the operating theatre. It has gone missing and we have not been able to find it since before the Eid holiday.
“It was the morning before Eid and we went looking high and low. We thought somebody had borrowed it so we went looking but never found it. “It is always in the operating theatre but it may be borrowed from time-to-time in different parts of the hospital, not to be removed from the hospital itself.” The official said anaesthetists were the last to use the machine and they were questioned by hospital security but they were not suspected of stealing it.
He said a team of security officers and medical officials spent the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday scouring the compound in search of it but was unsuccessful. “First of all we had to determine it was really missing, so we looked high and low. We talked with everybody and when we discovered it was missing, we reported it to our head of security and our CEO and they took it from there. It is really distressing,” he said.