GKT computer loss

An invitation to thieves?

Computer chips worth £40 000-50 000 have been stolen from Guy's, King's and St Thomas's (GKT) Medical School's New Hunt's House, just as it was preparing to open its doors to students for the first time.

A spokesman from King's College London confirmed that "the chips from 120 ... brand new Dell computers in open access rooms ... were removed by thieves in mid September." They were taken from the Guy's campus of GKT. A spokesperson from King's said: "The college has to balance the needs for the rooms to be genuinely open access to students, and for security. After this incident there is now a 24 hour guard at the door to the rooms, and regular patrols have been increased. The college is discussing the thefts with its insurers and hopes that its losses will be covered in full." Students must now display identification badges in order to gain access to the information services centre.

Scott Rice, the president of King's College's student union, described the loss as "unfortunate." He said that although teething problems were to be expected, he was pleased to see that the college had stepped up security. He added that he had not heard any complaints from students about computing facilities. Action was taken immediately for the chips to be replaced, and students only lost two days' access to the computer room. Altogether 60 of the new computers were untouched, and these were able to be used for registration.

"We would be surprised if there was any university that hasn't suffered a similar loss at some stage," said a college spokesperson. ""he price of chips has been rising recently, influenced in part by the earthquakes in Taiwan, and this has created particular problems. Theft of computer chips is a common problem in institutions and businesses with large numbers of computers."

New Hunt's House has just opened in order to house research and teaching facilities for the new GKT school of biomedical sciences. The school was formed in August 1998 by the merger of United Medical and Dental Schools (UMDS) and King's College London (student BMJ 1998;6:316). A spokesman for Intel, one of the largest manufacturers of computer chips, said that their production was unaffected. Some competitors may, however, have been affected by events in Taiwan, which may have lead to an increasing demand for chips.

Alex Brooks, GKT London


studentBMJ 1999;07:394-436 November ISSN 0966-6494