Jokers sabotage cardboard nurses

Some of the nurses are playing out TV theme tunes

A patient group in Lincolnshire says it is very disappointed with pranksters who have sabotaged cardboard nurses - changing pre-recorded health messages.

The dummy nurses, introduced at the beginning of May, were programmed to play messages reminding people to clean their hands.

But some of the nurses at Lincoln County Hospital have been heard to play the A Team and Top Cat theme tunes.

Patients' representative Jean Burgess said the nurses had a serious message.

"Everybody needs to be reminded [about washing hands], not just patients and relatives but staff and doctors too," said Ms Burgess.

"OK, it may be irritating to people going in and out of the ward constantly but I understand it will probably not be a long-term project."

A spokeswoman for the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust said "We are aware that two or three of the cut out nurses at Lincoln County Hospital have been vandalised, either by being drawn on or by their voice recordings being altered.

"We are obviously very disappointed that this has been done and that those responsible don't take infection control and prevention as seriously as we do."

The cut-out nurses contain a recorded message activated by movement as people walk past and have been placed at Lincoln County Hospital, Boston's Pilgrim Hospital, Grantham and District Hospital and Louth County Hospital.

They have been supplied to the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust by NHS East Midlands.