A woman who posed as a nurse at the 37 Military Hospital has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to steal a baby at the Maternity Ward.
The suspect, who identified herself as Beatrice Gyasi, a resident of Klagon in Accra, was seen at the Maternity Ward playing with babies while their mothers were asleep.
In some cases, the mothers had left their babies in her care to use the washroom.
A source at the 37 Military Hospital told the Daily Graphic that the woman in the nurse’s uniform had been able to gain access to the Maternity Ward because she was in a nurses’ uniform.
It said after some other nurses had seen her around, they questioned whether or not she was a member of staff, since they had not seen her before.
According to the source, she answered in the affirmative and claimed that she had just been posted from the Winneba Nurses Training College (Winneba NTC) to the 37 Military Hospital.
However, after a while the nurses and senior officers at the ward became suspicious when they realised she was not undertaking any specific assignment but was only playing with the babies.
The source said when the suspect was further questioned, she claimed she was a nursing mother who was there to feed a baby.
She, however, could not tell whose baby she was to feed or where the baby was.
The nurses, therefore, examined her breast to find out if she was truly a nursing mother but found out that she did not have breast milk.
She was arrested and handed over to the Cantonments Police.
At the Cantonments Police Station, the police confirmed to the Daily Graphic that a woman had been brought there from the 37 Military Hospital for posing as a nurse and a report was filed that she was suspected to be a baby thief.
During interrogation, she told the police that she was enrolled at the Winneba NTC for one-and-a- half years but had to abandon the course when she became pregnant.
The police said she was detained at the La Police Station, since the Cantonments Station did not have a female cell.
The Cantonments Police later granted the ‘nurse’ bail, since she was a nursing mother.
The nurse was asked to report herself to the police station and she had since obliged.
-graphic