NHS staff unsettled by patients filming care and posting videos on social media
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/17/nhs-concerns-patients-filming-tiktok-instagram
Posted by pajamakitten
NHS staff unsettled by patients filming care and posting videos on social media
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/17/nhs-concerns-patients-filming-tiktok-instagram
Posted by pajamakitten
22 Comments
Can absolutely see why.
One would hope they could ban/or otherwise make them stop this behaviour.
They are right to be concerned and no part of this behaviour is acceptable. But sorry this did make me laugh:
“She wanted to record the cannulation because she thought it would be entertaining on social media. But she didn’t ask permission,” the staff member said.”
Even more fuel and proof that social media has been a plague on the world.
You’re not allowed to use phones (for pictures / videos) in hospitals for privacy reasons. They should be confiscated
Should be banned on the wards as it is counter to the privacy of other patients.
Not ill enough to stop using your phone camera? You can ship out and be ill at home.
Recently stayed three nights in hospital after an operation. They couldn’t/wouldn’t enforce their no smoking anywhere within the hospital grounds policy. Good luck to them enforcing any of type of ban.
What people need to realise is that we don’t have security walking around in the NHS (well certainly not where I work).
This is a common decency thing and if you can’t be decent, you still can’t be refused care. Folks saying: Confiscate the phone! Ban it! don’t understand how often that type of conversation results into a nasty confrontation in the workplace for healthcare staff.
The way to fix this: Tell your friends/relatives that do film inside hospitals etc. to grow the fuck up and consider the impact them filming has on the staff that are trying to care for them.
ridiculous for social media / TikTok use but my wife just got an email from a solicitor about a doctor who is being investigated for poor treatment and asked to be a witness. when you read about some of the mistakes that happen, having a video doesn’t seem a bad idea. same as cops having video cams – it shouldnt be needed but sadly is.
I don’t like the fact they’re putting staff under stress and putting it on social media for “entertainment”. However, I do not agree that it should be banned. Medical negligence and abuse is a thing, and a vulnerable person may need to record to keep themselves safe, &/or collect evidence of malpractice without having to worry if they’ll be held accountable for filming.
Completely agree it should be banned for entertainment purposes but the NHS is terrible system right now so I can understand why they’d do it to ensure proper following of procedure.
The only reason id disagree with filming in a hospital is for the privacy of other patients. NOT for the staff. Sorry, but there are some instances I wish I had filmed.
Public service, publically funded. Police can be recorded, fire can be recorded. We have created this world where everyone can be recorded. If you ban it for 1 you ban it for all.
What protection does the NHS have that others don’t?
I’d imagine the people who say confiscate it have never worked in the NHS
There are notices up at the hospital I work at telling patients they must not film/photograph staff or other patients without permission.
Just put signs up saying there are large magnetised machinery in use in this building . Potentially this will wipe or corrupt any active phone nearby. So either turn phone off or put in airplane mode.
At one of our dental practices we had to put a sign up asking visitors to not use their phones to take pictures or videos of others.
Usually we are fine with patients taking photos of family in the chair but not if they don’t ask/ try and take a random picture of us as it’s rude and they could post anything about us online. I actually think we are legally allowed to stop and tell them to delete but hard to enforce. Weirdly we had more of an issue taking pictures and stuff before COVID.
Once someone was being a dick about it when their kid was in (making weird jokes about his kid needing to open wide then filming us both trying to do a filling) and my dentist at the time (excellent guy with a dark sense of humour) when he was told it was harmless, got his camera out and pretended to record his kid in the chair ‘for his private collection’. Dad kicked off and my dentist said how do we know you don’t have some weird intentions with the photos you just took of my nurse (me) without permission? The guy stopped, dentist showed he wasn’t recording and recommended both he and his wife came in together next time than alone if he still wants to stay on the register, the guy was an asshole. Yes we spoke to management (who didn’t like how the dentist handled it) but was made aware we do get some really weird people in and we don’t have any cameras at all at work, the only recording we have is on some calls apparently which we switch off when taking payments online.
The reason we put the sign up was a patient let management know she caught another patient she didn’t know randomly taking photos and a video of her in the waiting room. She saw he had an image of her sat there on his phone when she got up to be seen.
Really, really creepy.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand people wanting to record conversations and such in some cases as evidence but there is no need to video people in a private and confidential setting.
I remember Blair’s argument for more CCTV cameras and ID cards was nothing to hide, nothing to fear…
Film and tv crews have to get people to sign release forms to show them on camera. Its wild that in places like hospitals people can bypass this if its for social media or influencers
Filming NHS workers is like filming the police – they have an enormous amount of power and responsibility over other people (they literally have people’s lives in their hands), so it’s fair enough to want there to be an independent account of what they’re doing.
Medical malpractice is and other poor treatment is much more common than people think, so it’s always good to have proof of how you were treated.
I would be, too. I hate that it’s legal to film people just doing their jobs, tbh. We have no control over what happens to these images after the fact, and that’s a bit scary in the current climate.
It is weird when patients record or have a family member on video call when you’re in their room doing personal care or whatever but you can’t really take away someone’s right to do that and it doesn’t really bother me because I’m just doing my job to the best of my ability.
It does worry me that they might use it to spin a false narrative because some people just want to victimise themselves. Posting on social media is definitely a dick move
I feel like if you’re well enough to be recording things, you’re well enough to go the fuck home and stop bed blocking…