Hospital fined after street food found wrapped in sensitive medical records

A shocking breach of patient confidentiality has sparked outrage — and it started with a street food snack.

A private hospital in Thailand is facing backlash after confidential patient records were discovered being used to wrap street food sold by a local vendor.

The bizarre breach of privacy came to light when a popular social media influencer, known online as 'Doctor Lab Panda', posted a photo showing a medical document repurposed as packaging for khanom Tokyo, a popular Thai snack. The document seemingly featured personal identifiers and diagnosis details.

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

According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), the private medical facility in Ubon Ratchathani was fined 1.21 million baht (US$37,000).

Alongside the image, the influencer captioned: "Should I continue eating it, or is this enough?"

According to The Bangkok Post, an investigation later uncovered that more than 1,000 confidential medical records had gone missing after being sent off for destruction.

The hospital, which hasn't been identified, claimed it had outsourced the disposal to a small business but failed to monitor the process. The business owner reportedly took responsibility, admitting the documents had been stored at their home before unintentionally leaking into public circulation.

In the digital age, it turns out even paper records can go viral.

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