A HOSPITAL trust has hit out at fake claims a woman stole a baby from one of its sites.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust issued a public statement after a post on a community Facebook group claimed a two-day-old baby had been taken.

The post, originally shared to the group entitled Winchester Selling Page, claimed a woman impersonated a nurse before taking the infant from the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

The false post included an image and said she had been caught on CCTV. The post asked the public for help in reuniting the young boy with his mother and catching the culprit.

In truth the CCTV image is from a case in Spain in 2016 when a baby was kidnapped from Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

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Taking to Facebook to set the record straight, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust  - which runs the hospitals in Winchester, Basingstoke and Andover - said: "You may have seen a recent post on a Facebook group about a baby being stolen from one of our hospitals.

"Please be assured that this is a complete fabrication and is inaccurate.

"If you see this post anywhere, please report it to the group administrators."

Steve Brine, MP for Winchester, added: "Whoever posted this is irresponsible beyond belief. If anyone can help eradicate this post, please contact the Trust."

A spokesperson for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We would like to reassure everyone that there has not been an incident of this nature at any of our trust sites.

"We’d like to remind our patients, staff and community to only source information from official NHS sources such as NHS England, the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust website and social channels.”

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