A nurse who posted photos on Facebook showing patients having operations has been suspended.
The worker is understood to have used their mobile phone to take pictures of patients in an operating theatre at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital.
The Daily Record has reported that a fellow nurse told management about her colleague after coming across the images on the social networking site.
The patients are not believed to be identifable in the pictures, and staff were “completely unaware” of the images being posted online, according to a source close to the hospital.
An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokeswoman said: “We can confirm a member of staff has been suspended pending an internal investigation.”
Scotland Patients Association chairwoman Margaret Watt said: “Any nurse caught doing this should be sacked, if not sectioned. Putting pictures of patients in hospital on the internet is a gross breach of their human rights and dignity – the worst I have ever heard of.”
A spokesman for nurses’ union Unison said: “Staff should be well aware they need to be careful about what they put on social networking sites.”