A CRIME alert campaign was launched yesterday at one of Scotland's

biggest maternity hospitals just three weeks after a woman was found

wandering about the wards.

The woman was reported to police after staff at the 124-bed Bellshill

Maternity Hospital in Lanarkshire became suspicious of her movements.

She is now the subject of a report to the procurator-fiscal.

However, Mrs Bunty Gunn, chairman of Lanarkshire Health Board,

speaking yesterday at the hospital, rejected suggestions that the

incident, or others reported over the past year in England where babies

were stolen from maternity hospitals, was the reason for launching the

first hospital watch scheme in the board's area.

She said it was the staff which had initiated the scheme because of a

rise in reports of petty crimes within the hospital or in the car park.

The board had joined with police in setting up the campaign which aims

to raise the awareness of security among hospital staff and visitors.

The security marking of every movable item of hospital equipment is

among measures that will be taken to counteract the problem.

Mr William Robertson, Strathclyde Police assistant chief constable in

charge of community services, said similar schemes set up in five

hospitals in the area within the past two years had proved successful.