Calls to police to report suspected crimes at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr increased by 400% in just two years, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act suggest.
This year, up until the end of September, police were called 21 times. This compares to just four reported suspected crimes at the Ystrad Mynach hospital in 2015.
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, which runs the hospital, said a security review urging staff to report suspected crimes was behind the increase.
The amount of reports of suspected crime at the hospital, which opened in November 2011, rose to 15 last year. That number had already been reached by June of this year.
These included reports of thefts and suspected sexual assualts.
Questions have been raised over the level of security at the hospital.
Blackwood councillor Nigel Dix was contacted by a relative of a patient who was disturbed to find there were no security staff patrolling the publicly accessible areas of the building late at night.
He said: “I was shocked that the hospital has so little security in place.
“Patients and families need to have confidence that the hospital is a safe place.
“It needs to be urgently addressed.”
In September this year, Gwent Police issued an appeal after two men walked in and stole an MP3 player and speakers from a cupboard during the early hours.
A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We take the safety of our patients and staff very seriously and we will continue to ensure that the environment at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr is as safe as it can be and we will continue to review our security at the site.
“We conducted a security review at the hospital two years ago and as a result made a number of improvements to our site security measures.
“This review also included raising awareness of security matters and actively encouraging staff to report incidents whenever they occur. This has undoubtedly led to an increase in these figures as reported.
“However, we also recognise that a proportion of these figures made available by Gwent Police may be related to incidents that have taken place in the grounds and surrounding area of the hospital, which we may not have been informed about unless incidents involved our staff or patients.”
Caerphilly AM, Hefin David, said: “If the security review has led to the additional reporting of incidents, then that’s a good thing. It’s much better if there are accurate recordings of incidents and where they occur.
“The health board should then be able to prioritise specific actions to improve patient safety.”
A Gwent Police spokeswoman said not all call-outs equated to a crime having been committed at the hospital.
Surely in this day and age all hospitals should have uniformed security personnel patrolling ?