‘We don't want to feel like Big Brother is watching us': the NHS staff being filmed by patients

Telegraph

13-07-2025

Katie Thompson has grown accustomed to friends seeing her on the internet – not that she enjoys being filmed. A sonographer at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, she says she is frequently spotted on social media platforms by her nearest and dearest having been covertly filmed while attending to patients.
'You don't want to find yourself, without being asked, suddenly appearing on someone's TikTok or Facebook,' says Thompson, who warns this is happening on a 'daily basis'.
'I choose what I do and don't put on social media, but if someone else is taking pictures of you or recording you [and uploading that content online], you have no control over who is seeing that.'
Thompson is far from alone in her discomfort. In fact, she is one of a growing number of NHS professionals reporting that they are regularly being recorded, overtly or covertly, by their patients or their patients' friends and family.
The problem has become so widespread that senior medics were last month forced to intervene, with the Society of Radiographers (SoR) publicly expressing its concerns.
On one occasion, the union said, a member had reported being filmed by the 19-year-old daughter of a cancer patient who was having a cannula inserted.
'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.
'I spent the weekend afterwards worrying: did I do my job properly? I know I did, but no one's perfect all the time and this was recorded. I don't think I slept for the whole weekend.'
The group warned that those filming inside hospitals and other clinical environments risk 'publicising other patients' medical information, and compromising their own treatment'. It is now calling for the introduction of clear policies to prevent patients from photographing or recording clinical procedures without having express permission to do so.
Lives as 'content'
Some of the clips posted online and seen by The Telegraph are seemingly the product of individuals keen to document their own health journeys, or to raise awareness of specific conditions. Others, however, appear to follow the broader trend of many people treating their entire lives as 'content' for social media.
Whatever the rationale of those behind the videos, the SoR warns that they are making staff in the health service – the vast majority of whom wear identity badges – 'uncomfortable' and 'anxious'.
Hospital trusts across the UK have their own policies when it comes to filming, with many clearly stipulating that 'no patients or staff are to be filmed without consent'.
But some warn current measures do not go far enough.
'As healthcare professionals, we need to think: does that recording breach the confidentiality of other patients? Does it breach our ability to deliver care?' Dean Rogers, the director of strategy at the SoR, told the BBC last month.
'There are hospital trusts that have very good policies around patients taking photos and filming procedures but this is something all trusts need to have in place.'
Thompson, whose own ward has a sign which explicitly states that patients must not record or take pictures, agrees. 'I think there should be policies [to prevent this],' she says. 'People aren't asking permission to do this, and it's causing anxiety among the staff. We don't want to feel that we're being watched all the time… like Big Brother's watching us.'
Erosion of privacy
Many medics are despairing over the current state of affairs, pointing out the litany of issues that come with filming inside clinical settings.
Other patients who may appear in the background of such footage risk being exposed, for one, while NHS staff going about their duties could have their privacy eroded too.
'God forbid, it could be somebody [who is filmed] who's not actually told a relative they're going to hospital or got anything wrong with them,' says Rachel Nolan, the SoR's vice-president. 'Then they see it [the clip] on somebody's TikTok or Instagram, and think 'that's my relative in the background, I wonder what they're doing there?''
In some instances, people may also be unwittingly leaking their own personal and highly sensitive information. For Thompson, who routinely carries out pregnancy scans, all sorts of data risk being compromised when her patients film their treatment, potentially putting them 'at risk'. (Screens used as part of the procedure typically show the individual's name, their date of birth and their hospital number, among other personal information.)
Moreover, patients filming and uploading footage of their time in hospital may distract staff attempting to carry out complicated medical procedures. 'It's mentally taxing enough making decisions that are going to affect people's health without thinking at the back of your mind that you're being filmed,' says Dave Pilborough, a therapeutic radiographer at the Royal Derby Hospital and a past president of the SoR.
Surprising culprits
A trawl of social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram reveals a glut of videos of this kind, captioned with messages such as 'come with me to the hospital' or 'spend the day with me in A and E'.
Such clips often attract hundreds of views and likes, generating thousands of followers for the accounts that air them. The Telegraph found multiple examples of videos featuring footage of staff who are seemingly unaware they are being captured on camera. There is also an abundance of content posted online in which other patients seem to have been filmed without their knowledge or consent.
Some of these clips show individuals lying on hospital beds, capturing their ordeal in intimate and occasionally graphic detail. Others are filmed inside busy waiting rooms.
But it's not always the patients themselves who are behind the camera. In fact, Thompson says, the most common culprits are friends and family accompanying women as they come in for a scan.
She explains that in many instances, it is 'the person sitting with [the patient] who will have their phone in a very unnatural position on their lap and be filming the screen, or filming you doing the scan'.
Sometimes, they appear to be trying to capture the moment covertly. 'It's the ones that have got the phones really low on their laps. They're the ones that know they shouldn't be doing it,' she says.
When she is able to spot that they are recording, Thompson asks them to stop – at which point they can get 'irate', she says. 'I think they feel guilty. They've been caught, but they've been doing it in such a covert way that they know they're not supposed to be doing it.'
Worsening problem
The SoR says the problem has worsened significantly in recent years.
'It's pretty trendy to take pictures of just about everything that happens to you and then stick it on social media,' says Richard Evans, the organisation's chief executive.
'It's almost the norm that people put everything on TikTok and Instagram,' says Nolan. 'They document their whole lives, what they're having for tea, and say, 'Oh, I've been in an operation today, and I'll put that on [the internet] as well'. I just think it's the availability of being able to record everything and document absolutely everything in their lives.'
Thompson, meanwhile, speculates that influencers who have been given explicit permission to film their treatment (as part of them documenting their own health journeys) are unwittingly inspiring copycats.
And as the trend grows, there are mounting worries there could be a more sinister side to some of the filming too, with some patients thought to be seeking to 'expose' the NHS, or catch out doctors they deem to be complicit in a broken system.
'There will always be people who want to exploit systems and be sensational,' says Evans. 'Maybe they even see themselves taking part in revealing the truth about the health service or something like that. You can imagine a range of motivations, can't you.'
He adds that tighter policy can't come soon enough, arguing all NHS trusts need to have clear rules in place that prevent patients from filming inside their facilities, unless they have been granted permission to do so.
'For the vast majority of people, I suspect this is just unintentional, and they are not really thinking that what they're doing could be a problem,' he says. But ultimately, Evans concludes, 'some clear policy will be helpful'.