Medical staff from around the country are reporting that bottles of hand sanitiser are being stolen from hospitals - with one suspect listing for "hospital-grade" sanitiser removed from Trade Me this afternoon.
Writing on the New Zealand Reddit page yesterday , a person with the username 'seriousbeef' pleaded for people to stop stealing the items, as they are needed to keep patients safe.
"To the people who keep stealing the hand sanitiser and other supplies from Starship and Auckland City Hospital departments: our stocks are limited and we need these to keep you, your family and ourselves safe. We cannot replace what you steal. Please stop," they wrote.
The person said they were hearing similar stories from hospitals across the country, including in "Nelson, Palmerston North, Waikato, Wellington, Hutt and Waitemata".
Another poster indicated that they worked at Nelson Hospital, and said "we've had people steal soap and hand sanitiser out of cleaning cupboards and from the bathrooms and sanitising stations.
"It's absolutely ridiculous - how can we keep their families and ourselves safe without the means to do so?"
Another said "it's been happening at Waitakere too - along with thermometers", while another person said, "I am literally securing hand sanitisers with zipties right now at Waikato DHB."
A spokesperson for Auckland DHB said they were too busy dealing with Covid-19 to provide a response on the issue.
'SCUM' TRADER TRIES TO SELL 'HOSPITAL GRADE' SANITISER ON TRADE ME
Meanwhile, one seller has attempted to sell suspicious "hospital grade" sanitiser on Trade Me for well above the normal retail price, after Trade Me said this week that they would crack down on the practice of price gouging.
Two weeks ago , Trade Me said they would not intervene in the practice, despite overseas sites like eBay and Amazon doing so, because "at the end of the day, these are trades between a willing buyer and a willing seller and the prices are simply market forces at work".
On Wednesday, amid mounting criticism, Trade Me did a U-turn on that stance and announced it would introduce measures "to protect our users from exploitative pricing during the Covid-19 outbreak".
Trade Me said stopping price gouging is "tricky", and that "our teams will be working hard to enforce this new policy over the next few days".
Trade Me users have reported that some "Buy Now" auctions for hand sanitiser and face masks had been removed after the change - but at time of writing, some $1 reserve listings remain active on the site, with prices above the typical retail.
The listings included one from a user who claimed to have 25 bottles of "hospital grade" hand sanitiser - which happened to be the same brand used by Auckland Hospital.
Microshield hand sanitiser normally retails for about $26.50 in New Zealand, and cheaper in bulk lots, but the auction's bid was up to $71 - a 167 per cent mark-up - before Trade Me shut it down about 12.30pm today.
When questioned about where they got all the sanitiser, the seller said they had bought it from a friend.
One user asked: "Is this where our missing hand sanitiser disappeared from our ward at Auckland Hospital, shame on you," to which the seller responded: "You better watch your mouth - I will record this."
Another user commented: "25 Bottles of 'Hospital Grade' sanitiser - now why would you need that many in the first place I wonder, reeks of a rip off" - to which the seller replied, "Just mind u [sic] own business. OK?"
After the auction was removed, the unanswered questions on it became visible, showing the intense criticism directed at the seller from medical staff.
"I'm at nurse in an ICU," wrote one person. "We are currently the unit quarantining all suspected cases in the hospital and are preparing to ventilate people - I'm wanting to attach sanitisers to all 20 or so of our ventilators, but stocks are low atm, any chance I could grab a bunch from you?"
Another wrote: "I am a doctor in Hawkes Bay and we are running very low because people think they can steal to protect themselves, without thinking that actually the health care professionals on the front line need it far more than you do, because we expose ourselves hundreds of times per day.
"These are only in the public hospitals, not in shops."
TRADE ME RELYING ON COMMUNITY TO REPORT PRICE GOUGING
Yesterday, Trade Me's head of trust & safety George Hiotakis told 1 NEWS the company was, in part, relying on members of the community to report price gouging through the 'community watch' function, and said it had been working on the new policy for "two weeks".
"It's a tricky policy to put into action - we can't just flick a switch," Mr Hiotakis said.
But at time of writing, the community watch function does not contain a specific field for people to report price gouging - the most relevant field is for reporting fraud.
Mr Hiotakis also said it was difficult for Trade Me to police the practice because they had "8 million live listings on the site at any time".
At time of writing, there were only 207 listings for "hand sanitiser" on the site, and 119 listings for "N95" face masks.
Asked why Trade Me doesn't ban the sale of hand sanitiser and face masks outright, Mr Hiotakis said "it's really important to us that we play our role in making sure these items, that New Zealanders want during these times, are available for them to buy - if we had banned them that would obviously not have been the case.
"In rolling out this policy we've taken an education-first approach - it's not uncommon for the members that we've been in contact with to then re-list the item at a far more reasonable price," Mr Hiotakis said.
News tip or more information? Email Luke Appleby or Follow @lukeappleby
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