An article in Arab News reports the Saudi Arabia Health Department has warned hospital employees not to take camera phones into the faclities. If caught with a camera phone, employees face punishments, including a reduction in salary, according to the article.
The Arab News says hospitals can't confiscate the handsets, but hospital administrators will inform government authorities who can take the phones. No camera phones have been seized so far.
Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dhakeel, the director of health affairs in Riyadh, says camera phones could be used to take photos of patients or harass visitors.
Banning versus usage
As I've written before, Saudi Arabia has banned camera phones and has been taking steps to remove them from the country despite the population's interest in using them.
In many other countries, however, doctors and emergency medical workers are using camera phones to take photos of sick and injured people and sending the photos to other doctors to obtain advice about treatment.
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