Court: Drugs still disappear from King Edward Memorial Hospital Missing drugs are still a concern for WA hospitals. POWERFUL, addictive drugs still regularly disappear from Perth's main maternity hospital without trace, despite increased security following the death of a midwife from an overdose four years ago. Coroner Barry King is presiding over the inquest into the deaths of two health workers at two major hospitals in 2009 and 2010, both of whom died from apparent accidental overdoses of medications used at their workplace. In June 2012, 39-year-old Craig Doherty, a nurse at Royal Perth Hospital, was found dead at his unit having injected a fatal dose of the sedative Propofol, which was implicated in the death of superstar Michael Jackson. Today, King Edward's chief pharmacist Patrick Yapp admitted that despite increased security, including electronic swipe cards, restricted drugs including morphine, pethidine, temazepam and diazepam would regularly go missing from the hospital wards, often with no explanation. This included dozens of diazepam tablets disappearing from the ward Ms Fisher worked on just months before her death - which prompted a senior investigator to be called. Questioned by counsel assisting the coroner Marco Tedeschi, Mr Yapp said that since Ms Fisher's death, new directives and new technology had been employed to try to stop the disappearance of restricted drugs. "It is not increasing, but it is still happening," Mr Yapp said. It is not a foolproof system. The inquest is examining whether Ms Fisher or Mr Doherty were able to get hold of the powerful drugs without their employers or colleagues knowing. The inquiry will also probe whether powerful sedatives and opiates at the two hospitals were stored and monitored adequately - and if changes to the classification of such drugs should be considered.