The Queen Sirikit Naval Hospital is investigating how documents with patients' medical records came to be used to make paper bags for snack vendors on the streets, navy spokesman V/Adm Pokkrong Monthatpalain said.
The investigation follows reports that paper showing personal medical data and hosptal death certificates was found to have been used to make paper bags for Khanom Tokyo, a Thai street snack.
The hospital, when asked to explain, said that the medical records of outpatients were stored electronically. However, it was still necessary for doctors to write some information down on paper.
The paper records were kept in a securely locked basement room.
When the amount of stored paper became too large, the older records were usually moved out of the hospital building for destruction.
There might have been be some carelessness during this stage, resulting in some paper records being taken outside the hospital by outsiders, the hospital said.
V/Adm Pokkrong said the hospital apologised for what had happened and filed a police complaint on Monday. A fact-finding investigation into the matter was underway, he said.