Gifts after not so grand theft | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

PlayStation games are a good way to pass the time, especially when confined to a hospital bed. Sadly the children at Hawke's Bay Hospital missed out on this entertainment over Christmas, after someone walked off with the one in the children's ward. Thanks to the generosity of two families the ward now has two.

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board has a policy of attaching games equipment to walls or trolleys to prevent them from being stolen.

Women, children and youth service manager Rika Hentschel said in this case it was difficult to attach a PlayStation to anything and staff had mistakenly relied on the honesty of patients, families and visitors.

"It's an ongoing problem," she said. "Items like a PlayStation are difficult to replace, as there is no extra funding available from health services and the ward relies on donations for play equipment." .

Heather Ewart, from Havelock North, said her 12-year-old daughter Sophie spent a couple of days in hospital over Christmas, when the PlayStation was stolen.

She and her 15-year-old sister Joanna and 10-year-old brother Will decided to donate their old unused PlayStation to the ward. "They got a Wii for Christmas so it was just sitting at home. The children thought it was a really good place to send it to - it made the kids aware of how lucky they were," she said.

Ms Hentschel hoped it would encourage other people to do the same.

Quite unrelated, 13-year-old Dylan and 11-year-old Josh Young also donated their old PlayStation after they received a new one for Christmas. The family moved from Takapau to Opunake last year.

Their father Nigel Young said Dylan had been in hospital and thought it was boring.

"We didn't know it had been stolen," he said.

The new PlayStations will be chained to a trolley to prevent them being taken.