World | Philippines
Row over nursing class images on web
A controversy has erupted over the appearance of pictures of a gynaecological test demonstration for nursing students in the Philippines on a social networking website.
- By Cher Jimenez, Correspondent
- Published: 00:43 May 9, 2008
Manila: A controversy has erupted over the appearance of pictures of a gynaecological test demonstration for nursing students in the Philippines on a social networking website.
The row that prompted the health authorities to request www.multiply.com to remove the content from public domain follows the recent scandalous posting of a video clip showing a rectal surgery in a central Philippines hospital.
Also called a Pap Test, the gynaecological procedure is employed to check for abnormalities including cancer in a woman's cervix.
In a letter to Multiply.Com, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III requested the removal of the pictures which were posted by a user named "sallydatgirl".
"It has come to our attention that videos/images of medical procedures are being posted in your website without the consent of the patient," said Duque's letter sent on April 29.
A check into the user's profile showed that the account's owner is a certain Sally Mercado from Bauan, Batangas in southern Luzon. From Mercado's pictures, it seemed that she is a nursing student.
"While we give prime importance to sharing of information and transparency of transactions particularly in government, posting of videos/images on medical procedures done on private citizens violates the patient's right to privacy and confidentiality," added Duque.
The health department also requested the website's administrator "not to publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate materials of this nature". A recent study by New York-based media agency Universal McCann showed the Philippines has an estimated 37 million "active" internet users of whom 83 per cent are involved in social networking.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Higher Education has banned students of healthcare courses from bringing mobile phones and video cameras to clinical classes. The ban came after videos of a rectal surgery at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Centre in Cebu were posted on video-sharing website YouTube.
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