"Protective masks are a symbol that crystallizes people's anxiety, that's why we have thefts," laments Didier Saada, the director of the Creil and Senlis hospitals. Various thefts have indeed taken place in recent days across the department.
According to our information, the Compiègne-Noyon hospital center also filed a complaint with the police station on Friday, "for theft of medical consumables". Three interns are targeted, suspected of having stolen masks and hydroalcoholic gel.
Three interns suspected of theft: "If it is proven, it is inadmissible"
"They were seen by several witnesses leaving the hospital with a cardboard from which protruded a pump bottle of hydroalcoholic gel and soap," said a source close to the investigation. "If it is proven, it is inadmissible. We are in such a delicate situation… ”, gets angry a health professional of the establishment.
The three interns must be heard quickly by the investigators. "It takes good citizenship on the part of everyone - families, patients and professionals - to give our agents something to protect themselves from," implores Brigitte Duval, the director.
And thefts don't just affect hospitals. On Tuesday, a 59-year-old man was arrested and taken into police custody at the Gendarmerie de Clermont company. At his home, the soldiers discovered outdated protective equipment that the fifty-year-old stole from a company in Maignelay-Montigny, where he is warehouse manager.
In all, 9,400 masks, 3,300 gloves, 4,500 wipes, 80 bottles of hydroalcoholic gel of 150 ml and fourteen of 500 ml were sold on the Internet. A carousel spotted by investigators from the intelligence office of the Somme gendarmerie group, which intervened quickly. Released free from police custody Wednesday evening, the man will be summoned by the Beauvais court.