Patient records are recycled as food wrappers...Ignoring safety to save money
Aug 06, 2025
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Authorities fined the hospital 1.21 million baht (about 52 million won).
According to local media such as Tairas, an online influencer in Thailand posted a photo on social media in May last year that documents containing patient information were being used as wrappers for traditional snacks sold on the street 'Kanom Tokio'.
The document clearly revealed the medical information of a man infected with hepatitis B. The influencer is "Should I keep eating this? Or should I quit?raised the question with the phrase ".
The post spread quickly online and was criticized for the hospital.
According to the investigation, the hospital outsourced the work of shredding more than 1,000 medical information documents to a small family operator, which did not properly shred the documents and stored them at home before leaking them without permission.
In response, the Thai Personal Information Protection Commission (PDPC) fined the hospital and the shredder 1.21 million baht and 16,940 baht (about 730,000 won), respectively, for violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
Netizens should consider patients' human rights more important. Hospitals should be sued and their licenses revoked", "Shops using recycled wrappers should be boycotted. It is an act of disregarding safety to reduce costs. Medical documents must be shredded", Hepatitis B is not transmitted through paper, but it is unknown how many hands it has gone through, and the toxic substances contained in the printing ink are also of concern" came up with an opinion.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
