"Maternity equipment failiures"

My wife entered the labour ward in October. It amazed me to find out that whilst the monitoring machines are in each room there are less sensor leads than machines.

It turns out that the staff regularly go to the nearest empty labour room and take the sensors to replace ones that have been lost or damaged. This practice means some rooms have missing kit at important times.

I was told it happens a lot because the technical department is too slow to respond to requests on evenings and weekends. Some staff find it far easier to take kit from elsewhere rather than report it missing.