Hospital fined for using patient records as food wrappers

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A private hospital in Thailand is facing backlash after confidential patient records were being repurposed as food wrappings by street vendors.

The medical documents, which contained patients’ personal information and details, were meant to be destroyed.

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The private medical facility in Ubon Ratchathani province in northeastern Thailand has not been named.

The breach of privacy blunder first came to light in May 2024 when popular influencer “Doctor Lab Panda” posted a photo showing a medical document holding crispy crepes, or khanom Tokyo, as it is locally known.

The document appeared to show personal identifiers and diagnosis details.

“Should I continue eating it, or is this enough?,” the influencer captioned the shocking post.

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The image quickly went viral, sparking public outrage and raising serious concerns about data handling within the hospital.

An investigation later uncovered that more than 1,000 confidential medical records had gone missing after being sent off for destruction, the Bangkok Post reported.

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The facility claimed it had outsourced the disposal to a small business but admitted failing to monitor the process.

The business owner admitted to stashing the documents at their home before the records were unintentionally leaked into public circulation.

The incident was among five major cases reported on Aug. 1 by the government’s Personal Data Protection Committee (PDPC), along with penalties imposed against entities for violating data laws.

The hospital was fined 1.21 million baht (about $52,000), the Bangkok Post reported, while the the disposal business owner was fined 16,940 baht (about $720).

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