King’s College Hospital

Challenges and objectives

King's College Hospital is one of London's largest and busiest teaching hospitals, with a strong profile of local services primarily serving the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Bromley.

As a progressive organisation, King’s College Hospital was looking for ways to fulfil SARs and comply with data privacy regulations without depleting precious budgets more than is absolutely necessary, and without wasting valuable expert resources on laborious administrative tasks.

The general public is becoming increasingly aware that anyone can request CCTV footage that they are featured in, which means that the identity of anyone else in that footage has to be redacted (hidden) to avoid data privacy infringements.

The healthcare sector has seen a steady increase in subject access requests (SARs). In the year ending 31st Jan 2020, 74% of requests received by the NHS were made by law firms and insurance companies and 26% by patients. In the subsequent year, 81% of NHS requests came from insurance companies and law firms. When a request is made, a copy of the relevant CCTV footage or documentation must be supplied in a compliant redacted format within one month.

The solution

King’s installed Facit’s video redaction software, Identity Cloak, in May 2021 – and with the automatic video redaction feature, has been able to reliably fulfil requests much faster and reduce compliance risks.

With Identity Cloak, users have unlimited redactions, enabling the Trust to manage costs and ensure it remains on budget whilst remaining compliant with GDPR.

The automated, on-premise solution has replaced tedious in-house manual processes or the cost of outsourcing, and eliminates the risk of data breaches.

Identity Cloak’s multi-mode function has enabled operators to choose how they process redaction. They begin the process by redacting all or none of the people in a video, and then reveal the subject(s) of interest or anonymising third parties; or applying blur on the video in order to select areas to remain clear.

The audio capture feature enables King’s to process body worn devices through the application. The addition of audio adds a layer of evidence that can provide context and additional facts about how situations develop and unfold.