The invention relates to a hospital video surveillance system comprising several cameras (2, 3, 4) for acquiring video data for surveilling several patient regions (5, 6, 7). The video data are transmitted from the cameras to a display device and are used to determine physiological properties of patients, wherein the physiological properties are vital signs. The bandwidths for the transmission of the video data are allocated depending on the determined physiological properties. Thus, the bandwidth allocation considers the physiological states of the patients, which can ensure that a sufficient bandwidth is provided where it is really required. This is especially useful, if the overall bandwidth is limited. Moreover, since the video data are used for fulfilling several functions, i.e. surveilling the several patient regions and determining the physiological properties, the overall system can be very compact and less or no additional physiological sensors might be required.