Patients across the UK are being criticised for secretly recording their NHS medical treatments on mobile phones – often without staff permission – and uploading the footage to TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
From cryptic ‘hospital selfie’ posts to IV drip boomerangs, is it really about health – or just a hunt for online validation?
The Society of Radiographers (SoR) has warned that the growing trend is putting NHS staff under pressure, breaching other patients’ privacy, and turning clinical environments into content farms. It is now calling for clear, national guidelines to ban covert filming in hospitals.
“Patients shouldn’t be filming in hospitals without staff knowledge and permission,” said Dean Rogers, SoR’s director of strategy, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
The union warned that distracted or uncomfortable staff may struggle to deliver high-quality care – and unfiltered videos might expose sensitive medical details of people in the same room. In some cases, staff have discovered they were secretly filmed and shared online, potentially including visible ID badges and personal details.
Ashley d’Aquino, a therapeutic radiographer in London and union rep, said she’s been approached by colleagues after patients filmed their treatments without consent.
Speaking at the SoR’s Annual Delegates’ Conference, she shared:
“I had one patient whose relative started filming while I was trying to set up the treatment. It wasn’t the right time – I was trying to focus on delivering the treatment” (Cited by the BBC).
She added that a colleague once agreed to take a photo for a patient, only to discover the patient had also been covertly recording her, planning to post it to her cancer blog.
In another case, a department assistant said she was inserting a cannula when the patient’s 19-year-old daughter began filming, without asking.
NHS urged to standardise no-filming policies
Some trusts already ban unauthorised filming, but the SoR says every NHS trust needs consistent, clear rules to protect staff wellbeing and patient privacy.
Prof Meghana Pandit, NHS England’s co-national medical director, stressed that filming without consent is unacceptable.
“Recording other patients inadvertently and without their permission risks breaching patient confidentiality… It should never be posted to social media,” she told the BBC.
But where do they draw the line? Will photos and videos of newborn babies have to be stopped within hospitals too? Or footage of the celebratory ringing of the bell in children’s cancer wards? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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