A man watches real-time footage of an operating room via closed-circuit (CC) TV at a hospital in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, on June 11, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Doctors’ associations filed a constitutional appeal on Tuesday over a revised medical law requiring hospitals to place surveillance cameras in operating rooms, claiming it violates the personal rights of physicians.
The Korea Medical Association (KMA) and the Korean Hospital Association filed the petition with the Constitutional Court, ahead of the CCTV camera installation requirement set to take effect on Sept. 25 after the National Assembly passed a law revision in 2021.
The revised medical law mandates cameras in all operating rooms that handle surgeries where patients are anesthetized or unconscious, and requires doctors to record the surgery procedures at the request of patients.
The measures do not apply in urgent cases where patients are at risk if the surgery is delayed.
“Such a law obliging the placement of CCTV cameras in operating rooms is unprecedented in the world,” the medical groups said in a statement, adding the mandate would put physicians under pressure due to constant supervision, thereby significantly hindering the provision of utmost medical services.
“(The new mandate) will severely damage the trust between doctors and patients by treating physicians as potential criminals,” the medical doctors’ groups argued.
They also said the revised bill will lead to accelerating the dwindling number of physicians in essential medical services and carries the risk of violating the personal rights and privacy of patients if the footage is leaked.
(Yonhap)
