Thief strikes at launch of hospital link charity in Poole (From Bournemouth Echo)

Thief strikes at launch of hospital link charity in Poole

7:00pm Sunday 26th April 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(2)

A POLICE investigation is under way after former national chief nursing officer Dame Yvonne Moores had her handbag stolen inside a Poole church just before she was due to launch a new local charity.

The bag, which contained notes for her speech as well as bank cards, cash, car keys and diary, was taken from the front pew at St Mary’s Church in Longfleet.

Despite the upset, Dame Yvonne managed to continue with the event to officially launch the Poole African Link, which twins Poole Hospital with Wau Hospital in southern Sudan.

Soon afterwards, the bag was found stuffed down a toilet in the nearby Harbour Hospital, minus the cards, £33 in cash, a mobile telephone and perfume. A few pages had been ripped out of the diary and someone had already tried to use one of the cards to obtain cash in Westbourne.

“How can a handbag go from a church?” asked Dame Yvonne. “As the police said, nothing is sacred. To be distraught and put it all behind me was a real test.”

Police are understood to have been examining CCTV footage from the Harbour Hospital’s security cameras and want to talk to a couple seen in the church shortly before the charity launch.

Dame Yvonne, a member of Poole Hospital’s board, recently spent 10 days in southern Sudan with consultant neurologist Dr John Burn, paediatrician Dr Antoinette MacAulay, emergency services matron Steve Frost and nurse-midwife Hilary Fenton-Harris.

Although she had previously worked in other deprived African countries, Dame Yvonne described Wau as “the most harrowing situation that I have personally experienced”.

The audience heard that medical staff at the Sudanese hospital struggle to care for child and adult patients with only basic resources, no running water and an intermittent electricity supply.

The idea of the new charity is to enable members of staff from Poole Hospital to go to Wau for a few weeks at a time to train doctors, midwives and nurses, and to send regular supplies of medicines and equipment.

Cheques can be made out to ‘Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - Africa Trust Fund’ and sent to Hilary Fenton-Harris, Poole Africa Link Co-ordinator, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Churchfield House, Longfleet Rd, Dorset BH15 2JB.