Hospital staff are appealing for the return of “vitally important” borrowed medical equipment which is used to manage patients’ symptoms or during end of life care.

The end of life care team at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which runs Colchester and Ipswich hospitals, needs several syringe pumps, worth £1,500 each, which have gone missing in the community returned.

Catherine Morgan, chief nurse at ESNEFT, said: “These syringe pumps are vitally important in terms of the treatment we are able to offer patients receiving end of life care.

“The trust covers a wide geographical area and if people go home to die or are in a nursing home, we appreciate things like this may get lost or forgotten about during such a difficult time.”

If you have a syringe pump to return, call the trust on 01206 742492.