Thai hospital fined US$37,000 after 1,000 pages of patient records used as street food wrappers
Private medical facility outsources ‘destruction’ of patient files to family-run business that fails to do so, allowing confidential paperwork to leak
A Thai hospital has been fined 1.21 million baht (US$37,000) after the confidential medical records of its patients were discovered to have been used as wrappers for street food.
The case was exposed by an online influencer who posted the medical documents being used as bags for a type of crispy crepe known in Thailand as khanom Tokyo.
The hospital at fault was a private medical facility in Ubon Ratchathani province in northeastern Thailand. Its name has not been revealed.
According to the influencer, whose name is translated as Doctor Lab Panda, patient details were visible on the wrapper. One showed clearly that it was that of a man infected with the hepatitis B virus.
The influencer asked: “Should I continue eating it, or is this enough?”
The hospital came under fire after the post, which attracted 33,000 reactions and 1,700 comments, went viral.
The post was made in May 2024.
On August 1, the government’s Personal Data Protection Committee (PDPC) reported that it had imposed a penalty of 1.21 million baht on the hospital for violating data laws.