John MacDonald: Someone tell the gangs that hospitals are not their Bedside Manor

If you’ve been to Christchurch Hospital anytime recently, chances are you’ve come across gang members either inside the building or outside in the car park area.

I was there the other week and there were four Mongrel Mob guys out in the car park. But that was nothing compared to what I saw about 18 months ago when I was visiting the hospital daily for about a week.

There were Mongrel Mob guys all over the place. I could see them up in the Intensive Care area and they seemed to be on patrol out in the car park.

Granted, they never said anything to me or threatened me in any way. But I reckon you’d have to be pretty hard not to, at least, feel intimidated.

And this is what the mum of a 15-year-old boy was confronted with at Christchurch Hospital late last year when her son was there as part of his cancer treatment.

He was having surgery and these Mongrel Mob guys were all over the place - refusing to wear masks inside in the intensive care waiting area, and generally being menacing.

She says they were threatening hospital staff, “guarding” entrances (as if they have a right to do that), and even blocking-off public car parks.

And because of her son’s compromised immunity, because of the cancer and the cancer treatment, this mum was really unhappy that these guys were running roughshod over everything and so, when it seemed hospital staff weren’t doing anything about it, she called the police.

Not one time. Not two times. But four times. And each time , the Police refused to turn up.

So we had gang members making the place their own, not giving a damn about anyone else, threatening people and blocking off areas, but no-show from the cops.

And, as if her experience at the hospital wasn’t bad enough, she’s now been told by the Independent Police Conduct Authority that the Police did nothing wrong by not turning up.

She pleaded with them to come and sort the situation out. But they didn’t.

Apparently, the fact no actual offences were being committed and that hospital staff didn’t think a police response was warranted was enough for the Authority to support the decision made by the police not to respond to Anne-Marie’s calls for help.

Which, if we’re going to look at this in a very black and white way, is probably technically correct.

But you would have thought, wouldn’t you, that a hospital - of all places - would be somewhere where you wouldn’t split hairs. And if gang members were there behaving in a way that you or I certainly wouldn’t get away with, then surely the cops could have - should have - turned up and told these guys to pull their heads in.

But they didn’t.

Hospitals are stressful places. They’re full of great people doing amazing work, but they are stressful places. And no one has the right to run roughshod over other people at a hospital.

I don’t have the right to do that - and I don’t expect it. You don’t have the right - and you don’t expect it. And gang members don’t have the right - but they expect it.

In fact, they don’t just expect it. They assume it - and, it seems, they are free to get away with it, because the Police let them away with it back in December when this mum’s son was in hospital for cancer surgery.

And now the Police Conduct Authority has let them away with it, saying that the right decision was made not to respond because these clowns weren’t actually breaking any laws and because hospital staff didn’t think Police were needed.

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