#Introduction: The Growing Challenge of Video Evidence in Modern Healthcare
Healthcare environments are among the busiest and most complex public spaces in the United Kingdom. Every day, thousands of patients, visitors, contractors and staff move through hospital corridors, reception areas, emergency departments, wards, entrances and car parks. To support safety, security and operational effectiveness, hospitals rely heavily on CCTV systems and increasingly on body worn cameras used by security officers and frontline clinical teams.
As the largest integrated NHS organisation in England, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) operates across ten hospitals and numerous community healthcare sites to serve hundreds of thousands of patients each year. With more than 31,000 employees and a vast estate that includes Manchester Royal Infirmary, Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Saint Mary's Hospital and Wythenshawe Hospital, the Trust generates substantial volumes of video footage every day. Overall the hospital trust:
Provides care to over 1 million people in Manchester and Trafford and Greater Manchester.
Cater for over 2.5m outpatient appointments a year
See, on average, 1,474 A&E presentations a day across our 4 A&E departments.
Deliver over 16,000 babies a year across our 3 midwifery units.
While CCTV and body worn video systems provide valuable evidence for investigations, incident reviews and legal enquiries, they also create significant challenges when footage must be disclosed to patients, staff, insurers, solicitors or other authorised parties.
The challenge facing MFT was not obtaining the footage. It was preparing it for lawful release.
As requests for video evidence continued to rise, the Trust found that traditional manual redaction methods were consuming increasing amounts of staff time which created significant operational pressures and slowed response times.
The search for a more efficient solution ultimately led the Trust to adopt Facit's Identity Cloak platform.
#The Problem: Why Hospitals Need Video Redaction
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, organisations must protect the privacy rights of individuals whose personal data appears in recorded footage.
A common mechanism for obtaining footage is through a Subject Access Request (SAR), which allows an individual to request access to personal information held about them. However, within NHS organisations, video requests extend far beyond formal SARs.
According to Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, the majority of requests originate from internal operational investigations rather than public access requests. These commonly involve:
Slips, trips and falls
Workplace accidents
Health and safety investigations
Vehicle collisions in hospital car parks
Insurance claims
Patient complaints
Security incidents
Allegations of violence or abuse against NHS staff
Investigations involving body worn camera footage
Occasionally, more unusual requests arise. Recently, the team handled a request relating to complaints concerning a funeral director's transportation of deceased patients.
In each case, the footage may contain sensitive personal information that cannot legally be disclosed without appropriate protection.
Potentially sensitive information may include:
Patients receiving treatment
Children and vulnerable adults
Visitors and members of the public
Staff members
Vehicle registration numbers
Computer screens displaying patient records
Clinical documentation
Medical equipment displays
Hospital signage containing identifiable information
The challenge is compounded by the nature of hospital environments. Unlike many commercial settings, hospitals are rarely static. Corridors, waiting rooms and emergency departments can contain dozens of people moving simultaneously through a scene. A single camera may capture fifty or more individuals within a short period.
Many cameras are mounted high above public spaces, which means that faces appear very distant or at unusual angles. In addition, footage may originate from fixed CCTV cameras, mobile body worn devices or smartphones used during investigations.
Every individual appearing in footage who is not relevant to the disclosure must be protected through effective redaction.
Failure to do so could result in breaches of data protection legislation, regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage.
#The Administrative Burden of Manual Redaction
For Charlotte Davison, CCTV Administrator at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, video redaction had become an increasingly demanding part of her role.
Reporting to Rhys Jones, Security, Violence Prevention and Reduction Manager, Charlotte is responsible for processing video requests and ensuring that footage can be released safely and compliantly.
Prior to adopting Identity Cloak, the Trust relied on pixelation software.
While functional, the system offered little automation. Redaction work had to be completed manually, frame by frame, and often required extensive operator intervention to track individuals through footage.
The consequences were significant.
Trust data showed the average time spent redacting each request had increased considerably:
| Year | Average Redaction Time Per Request |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 4.4 hours |
| 2024 | 16.3 hours |
| 2025 | 12.6 hours |
The increase reflected the growing complexity of requests, particularly those involving body worn camera footage in busy hospital environments.
Charlotte recalls spending several months working on a single internal investigation that involved just twenty-seven minutes of video footage.
Body worn camera footage presented particular difficulties. Unlike fixed CCTV cameras, body worn devices move constantly and create changing backgrounds and shifting perspectives, with large numbers of individuals entering and leaving the frame.
As MFT has deployed more than one hundred body worn cameras across security and clinical teams, requests involving this type of footage have become increasingly common.
Patient complaints often drive these requests. In some cases, patients may have limited recollection of an incident owing to stress, illness or medication and seek access to footage to better understand events.
As Charlotte Davison explained:
"I wanted something that was absolutely going to help me with my workload as pixelation used to take up so much of my time."
The growing administrative burden meant highly skilled staff were spending excessive amounts of time on repetitive processing activities instead of focusing on broader security and governance responsibilities.
#The Search for a Better Redaction Solution
Recognising that the situation was unsustainable, Charlotte undertook extensive market research to identify a more capable video redaction platform.
The objectives were clear:
Reduce processing times
Improve accuracy
Automate subject tracking
Simplify workflows
Support GDPR compliance
Handle complex hospital environments
Minimise staff training requirements
The Trust reviewed several providers and assessed them against operational requirements.
Initial evaluation identified several limitations in the majority of redaction solution providers. Charlotte found that the platforms offered limited redaction functionality compared with the Trust's requirements.
Specific concerns included:
Limited flexibility
Inability to alter redaction shapes
No audio redaction capability
The Trust also found that speed of redaction and workflow efficiency did not appear to be primary design priorities.
For a busy NHS Trust facing growing workloads, the ability to process footage rapidly was essential.
#MFT’s Existing VMS Capabilities
The Trust also explored functionality available through its existing video management system supplier. According to Rhys Jones, promised redaction capabilities had been discussed for nearly two years but had not materialised.
Meanwhile, manual processing continued to consume valuable resources.
The Trust therefore decided to conduct an independent review of the market rather than continue waiting for enhancements.
#The Solution: Why Facit’s Identity Cloak Stood Out
After reviewing available options, both Charlotte and Rhys concluded that Facit's Identity Cloak was the strongest solution by a considerable margin.
The Trust signed up in July 2025, with Facit also providing a dedicated laptop to support deployment.
Several factors influenced the decision.
Automated Tracking
The single most important requirement was automated tracking.
For Charlotte, this was non-negotiable.
Rather than following every person through every frame manually, Identity Cloak automatically tracks subjects as they move throughout the scene.
In busy hospital environments, this tracking capability delivers substantial time savings.
Rhys also described automated tracking as the Trust's priority requirement.
Performance in Complex Environments
Hospital corridors, waiting areas and emergency departments present uniquely challenging redaction circumstances.
Large numbers of people move unpredictably through the frame, frequently cross paths and partially obscure one another.
Identity Cloak demonstrated strong performance in precisely these environments.
According to Rhys, the system was particularly effective in crowded corridors and Accident & Emergency departments where competing solutions struggled.
Ease of Use
Another significant advantage was ease of use.
Many specialist redaction platforms require extensive training before operators become proficient.
Charlotte found Identity Cloak intuitive and straightforward.
The minimal learning curve reduced implementation risk and enabled faster adoption.
Comprehensive Compliance Features
As someone who places a strong emphasis on accuracy, Charlotte was particularly impressed by the platform's compliance-focused capabilities.
She noted:
"I'm a perfectionist. I like the fact that Identity Cloak gives me all the tools to ensure 100% compliance, including the software's ‘custom shaped blur’ capability to redact signage and computer screens."
Unlike simple face-blurring tools, Identity Cloak enables operators to protect a wider range of sensitive information, including objects and areas that may reveal personal data.
Results: Faster Processing and Greater Confidence
Since implementation, the Trust has seen substantial improvements in efficiency.
The most immediate benefit has been speed.
Charlotte highlights the dramatic difference in processing times:
"Identity Cloak's performance improves with each release. Its processing speed is really good. I go to make a cup of tea and when I come back the video is done."
What previously required extensive manual intervention can now be completed significantly faster through automated tracking and batch processing capabilities.
The impact and benefits extend beyond simple time savings.
Reducing redaction workloads enables specialist staff to focus on higher-value activities including:
Security management
Incident investigations
Violence reduction initiatives
Governance activities
Compliance oversight
Service improvement projects
Identity Cloak has also increased confidence that disclosures are being handled consistently and compliantly, even when footage contains large numbers of individuals and complex visual information.
Importantly, the CCTV administration team is now equipped to respond effectively to all forms of video disclosure requests, whether they arise from internal investigations, insurance claims, patient complaints or formal subject access requests.
Conclusion: A Modern Approach to an Increasingly Complex Compliance Challenge
The volume of video evidence generated across modern healthcare estates continues to grow. Increased CCTV coverage, expanding body worn camera programmes and rising expectations around transparency mean that NHS organisations face greater pressure than ever to process video requests quickly and compliantly.
For Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, manual redaction processes were becoming unsustainable. Processing times were increasing, workloads were mounting alarmingly and valuable administrative resources were being diverted away from other critical responsibilities.
Through extensive market research and a detailed evaluation process, Charlotte Davison and Rhys Jones identified a solution capable of delivering meaningful operational improvements.
