CRIME at two York hospitals has fallen by 18 per cent in 12 months.

The massive drop at York Hospital and Bootham Park Hospital has been welcomed by police and the hospital's security team.

They have put it down to a range of measures introduced in the last year.

Between January 2001 and December 2007 crime at the hospital fell by 59 per cent.

The anti-crime measures included regular patrols by police community support officers (PCSOs) who are based at the site.

The Press told in July how they had started to patrol the wards of the hospital to cut down on crime such as drug abuse in the hospital toilets and opportunist thefts from handbags or cars.

Mick Meredith, of the hospital's security team, believes a change in the way its CCTV cameras are monitored has also made a difference.

He said: "We now man our CCTV cameras ourselves 24 hours a day. It means if there are any hotspots we can pick up on it straight away."

The CCTV used to be monitored by City of York Council, but Mr Meredith said it had been very rare for them to get a phone call to tell them about an incident.

He added: "The PCSOs have made a difference with high-visibility patrols, and we now have two parking attendants in the external car parks at any one time. That has helped reduce car crime by a considerable amount."

He said there was also an extra security officer, based at Accident and Emergency, with a van, which meant he coulkd respond quickly to an incident anywhere on the site.

PCSOs Christopher Pitchford and Kaz Roberts are both based at the hospital full-time.

PCSO Pitchford said: "Kaz walks up and down all the wards and chats to the patients, staff and visitors, and asks if they've got any problems or concerns.

"I'm more mobile because I've got a police bike, so I cover the grounds and go round the car parks. Car crime has been one of our big concerns.

"I have stopped people in the grounds at Bootham Park for drug offences, which has led to arrests.

"We also work closely with hospital security. They had a problem with homeless people coming in and locking themselves in the public toilets and injecting themselves with drugs. We have dealt with that situation.

"We also have a few bike thefts, but that's come down significantly since we've been working here."

PCSO Roberts said: "It's invaluable to the team to have a base outside Fulford Road.

"When we come on shift we chat to hospital security and see if there's anything we need to be looking out for. We can also ask them to record someone on camera."