SECURITY guards may be required in the battle to thwart thieves after a £20,000 raid at a Stourbridge medical centre.

Health bosses are considering a range of security measures after crooks broke-in to the Hill House centre in Amblecote, smashed internal doors and windows and made off with laptop computers.

CCTV is another option for Dudley Primary Care Trust (PCT) at the Vicarage Road site, which has been targeted by vandals three times in the last six months although the latest incident, on May 25, was the first burglary.

A PCT spokesperson said: "We are very disappointed, the money we have got to spend replacing windows and computers is money that could have been spent improving patient services."

The Trust was also keen to stress no patient details were stored on the computers and no clinics were cancelled as a result of the thefts.