Hospital board faces charges

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32870, 20 March 1972, Page 15

Hospital board faces charges

(New Zealand Press Association! WELLINGTON, March 19. The Wellington Hospital Board and three of its staff entered pleas of not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court today on charges of breaches of the Narcotics Regulations.

The charges arose from the, burglary of the pharmacy at I Wellington Hospital during i the night of October 16, 1970. | An interim order suppressing; the names of the three per-' sons charged and of the hospital concerned was initially) made by Mr W. J. Mitchell,) S.M., on an application by) council for the defence. This) was opposed by council for) the Health Department.- and 1 later in the hearing the Magistrate permitted publication of the name of the hospital. Mr G. P. Barton, with him Mr F. B. N. Fox, appeared for the defendants, and Mr K. G. Stone for the Health Department.

The charges were laid last July but were adjourned initially because of the absence overseas of one of the parties.

Three charges laid against the Wellington Hospital Board were:

That being in possession of narcotics it failed to take all reasonable precautions to secure the building; that on December 31, 1969, it failed to record actual narcotics in stock in its possession and explain any variation in the real and calculated amounts; and that it failed to do likewise on June 30, 1970. The latter two charges together with one of failing to

Keep narcotics in a locked cupboard of substantial construction. were preferred against one of the defendants. A charge of failing to keep narcotics in a locked cupboard was laid against another defendant. The third defendant was charged with failure to take all reasonable precautions to secure the building, and with failing to ensure that records were kept in accordance with the requirements of regulations 44 and 46 of the Narcotics Regulations.