A WOMAN who recently underwent an electrocardiographic examination at the emergency department of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) complained that she found a surveillance camera facing her bed that she hadn’t been informed about, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

The woman, surnamed He, said that it made her very concerned about her privacy being leaked. She also questioned why the nurse had not informed her of the surveillance camera before the examination.

HKU-SZH said in a response Saturday that the emergency department had installed the camera on its own without reporting it to the hospital authority. The hospital has not found any leaked videos. HKU-SZH also apologized for causing unease to the patient.

He went to the hospital due to a fever and heart palpitations at 5 p.m. Feb. 13 and underwent an electrocardiographic examination in the emergency department. She noticed a blue light flashing on a surveillance camera that was facing her bed during the examination.

“The curtain was wide open and didn’t cover the camera,” He said. As she needed to lift her blouse for the examination, she asked the nurse if it was a camera and whether the curtain should be closed. However, the nurse said she wasn’t sure if it was a surveillance camera and only made a show of drawing the curtain, according to He.

He took photos as evidence and requested to view the recorded video. However, she was turned down and asked to delete the photos on her phone.

He called the police and reached a consensus with the head nurse of the emergency department to watch and delete the video together the next day.

According to the head nurse on duty that day, the surveillance camera was mainly used to prevent medical disputes. Only higher-ups had the passwords to watch the video and there was no possibility of leakage, the head nurse said.

However, when He went to the hospital the next day, the head nurse told her that the video had already been deleted and that the installation of the surveillance camera had been registered and put on file.

He said that since she hadn’t seen the video in person, she couldn’t be sure whether her privacy would be compromised.

HKU-SZH responded that the camera hadn’t been registered or put on file. At present, the hospital has removed the surveillance camera. (Zhang Yu)