HOSPITAL patients have been using their mobile phones to record confidential medical discussions.

Now they are being warned that they could be reported to the police and face possible legal action if it happens in future.

Posters are being displayed in wards to back up the message.

Staff at Salisbury District Hospital have been told that on several occasions over the last six months, inpatients and outpatients have been found to be recording other patients and staff, compromising their confidentiality.

One patient used a mobile to make a sound recording of a consultation with a member of staff without their knowledge.

Another used a phone to film a clinical setting which could have breached the confidentiality of other patients and staff.

A briefing from the hospital authorities says: "While we allow patients and staff to use mobile phones on site, clearly enhanced technology could enable them to record visual and audio material without consent and in inappropriate situations."

This includes recording consultations without consent; recording encounters between patients and staff; taking photos of staff without permission; photographing children without their parents' consent, and recording images of patients' injuries without consent."

Staff who see people doing any of these things have been told to ask them to stop immediately, and warn them that they could be reported otherwise.