Health bosses at Barnet Hospital are reassuring patients their records are safe after 19 computers were stolen over the Easter weekend.

The computers were taken from the physiotherapy, fracture clinic and outpatients departments, which had all been locked over the long bank holiday weekend.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said the computers had all been ripped from desks which they had been secured to with special fittings.

She said: "When people came back from the weekend on Tuesday morning, they discovered the thefts and immediately reported them to the police, who were satisfied with the criminal prevention strategies in place."

No patient information was stored on the computers, as records are all accessed on a shared network which the computers were linked up to.

The spokeswoman said: "It has been a bit of a shock. We do occasionally have thefts but nothing as large as this, at least for the last five years."

She said patient care had not been affected by the thefts, and hoped the computers would be replaced within the next few weeks. As a result of the thefts, an extra security guard has been put on duty for night and weekend shifts, bringing the total up to three.

April 30, 2003 11:00