Thefts: Sant Pau Hospital has lost half a million euros in endoscopy tubes

BarcelonaThis Monday It transpired that the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona The hospital suffered the theft of 13 endoscopy tubes from its facilities last Saturday. However, according to the ARA, almost identical events occurred in June of last year: up to fifteen tubes of this type were stolen from the same hospital, used, among other things, to perform colonoscopies. At that time, the value of the theft amounted to 400,000 euros, according to the complaint from the health centre. Therefore, in almost six months the hospital itself has been the victim of two identical robberies and has had material stolen that exceeds half a million euros, while waiting to quantify exactly the cost of the material stolen in the latest theft, which has initially been valued at around 100,000 euros.

According to sources consulted by the ARA, the hospital already filed a complaint with the Mossos d'Esquadra for the first robbery and has now done the same for the latest theft. Although six months have passed between them, it is being investigated whether both robberies are linked. In both cases, thefts were made from restricted access areas, which are only accessible to health workers, and everything points to the locks being forced.

In addition, both robberies occurred at the weekend, when there is less staff at the hospital, which could indicate a pattern. The latest theft was in the outpatient area, where the hospital's outpatient clinics are held, and it occurred at night, when there was no staff. The Mossos d'Esquadra are already investigating both robberies.

The hospital suspects that the thieves knew where they were going (a hospital can be a labyrinth) and what they were looking for. Endoscopic tubes are key to detecting digestive problems and cancers, among others. The intervention with this material consists of introducing a flexible tube with a small camera at the tip, making it advance a little further into the stomach.