£100k upgrade to CCTV at hospital car parks after spate of crime

The Trust said the upgrade will be across its hospital and community facilities.

The news follows a litany of criminal damage to cars and thefts from vehicles at Trust property across the southern region.

There are also concerns of people parking inappropriately at some locations.

Concerns had been raised about staff returning to their vehicles after shifts during darkness and over the years there have been a number of assaults in car parks at Craigavon and Daisy Hill Hospitals.

There has also been considerable concern about the high level of attacks on health care workers at Trust facilities in recent years.

Just recently it transpired that there were almost 7000 attacks on health staff over the past five years in the Southern Health Trust area alone.

The funding will be used across a number of hospital and community facilities as part of the Trust’s ongoing strategy to improve car park security, accessibility and traffic flow.

Welcoming the investment Helen O’Neill, Southern Trust Director of Finance, Procurement and Estates said: “Regrettably there have been a number of recent incidents of damage to and theft from vehicles on our sites, causing great distress to patients, visitors and our own staff.

“We hope that increased CCTV coverage will help to deter thieves, encourage more people to report accidental damage and help to make everyone feel more secure when using our services or coming to work.

“We are always working to improve traffic flow and car parking within the limited space and resource available to us.

“However, we also appeal to drivers to please take the same care as you would on any other public road or car park when driving within Trust grounds,” said Ms O’Neill.

The Trust is reminding drivers to:

Please drive slowly.

Respect disabled parking spaces, red hatched zones and emergency access.

Park responsibly within the white lines to allow best use of spaces.

If your vehicle is damaged or you accidently cause damage to another vehicle – please report as an incident and if necessary contact the PSNI.