A hospital in the Scottish Borders has been reprimanded after critical information to assess the condition of a premature baby was conveyed through social media.

A complaint has been upheld by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) against NHS Borders after the use of WhatsApp to convey vital patient data.

The case heard that WhatsApp was used to communicate the results of an electrocardiogram – a test recording the electrical activity, rate, and rhythm of the unborn baby’s heart – to the consultant who did not attend in person.

The investigation also found that the consultant receiving the information was only a minutes walk away from Borders General Hospital and that there was an ‘internal battle’ going on to get the doctor to come and assess the mother in person.

The mother of the child had a difficult pregnancy and at this point was on her eleventh visit to Borders General Hospital.

She had experienced worsening bleeding on her previous ten visits but was told repeatedly that there was nothing to worry about.

Their son was born in August 2022 at 31 weeks’ gestation and died five days later.

Despite her previous visits to the hospital and expressions of concern, in addition to the baby’s prematurity, the mother was not transferred to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for the birth - even though Borders does not have a neonatal intensive care unit.

An investigation by NHS Borders has since uncovered the use of WhatsApp rather than the consultant seeing the expectant mother in person, highlighting that concerns around the birth “warranted attendance from the obstetric consultant in person”.

The mum and dad have since expressed how ‘shocked, hurt and let down’ they were by the revelation that a social media platform was used to communicate their unborn son’s CTG heart monitoring readings, rather than the consultant attending – even though the senior obstetrician was only minutes away within the hospital site.

Speaking anonymously, the mother of the baby, said:  “We have found this really shocking. We didn’t know anything about a consultant who should have been present until we read the SAER report. It has been pretty devastating to find this out.”

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“Aside from the fact they’re using WhatsApp anyway, which is definitely not the way medical information should be shared between professionals, I know from doing personal training sessions in this hospital previously how bad the phone signal and WiFi are. It’s unbelievable to think they were sending such vital information this way.”

Her husband added: “You put your trust in the professionals and presume that the right people are in the right place at the right time.”

“While the midwives were always helpful and concerned, more senior staff were less so. We had no idea the consultant who should have been here, who was on the site and only a minutes walk away, was being sent critical live data by WhatsApp, and that there was this internal battle going on in trying to get them to come and assess my wife in person.

“We knew nothing about this at the time, and it was very hard to read in the SAER report.

“We are so let down by this. We know the consultant was supposed to be close by, just across a car park from where we were, yet wouldn’t come to see us or even accept information by email, only by WhatsApp. This cannot be allowed to happen again to any other family.”

Following their investigation, NHS Borders apologised to the family.

A complaint was made to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which has been upheld as an infringement of data protection law. The ICO found that NHS Borders failed to keep personal data secure and have advised NHS Borders that they should take a number of measures to consider the risks relating to personal data and to ensure data security.

The family is now working with medical negligence specialists Slater and Gordon to investigate their case.

Sarah McWhirter, Principal Lawyer at Slater and Gordon in Scotland, says: “The loss of their son has of course been utterly devastating for our clients, but then to find out that information at such a critical point was being conveyed by WhatsApp, rather than an in-person assessment, has understandably been shocking.

“WhatsApp is absolutely not an appropriate means of communication between medical professionals in any circumstances, and is particularly unacceptable in the case of an unborn baby’s heartbeat being monitored.

“While nothing can change the reality for this family, we commend them for speaking out in the hope that this will not happen to anyone else.”

The lawyers have said a review of maternity services at NHS Borders is currently being carried out by Health Improvement Scotland, which has been welcomed by the couple.

The bereaved mother added: “We do not want any other family to be in the position we are in, where you have been through so much then have to find details like this out in a report. We want things to change, and we want people to receive the care they need when they need it.”

“We are doing this for our son and other mums and dads. We want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

However, NHS Borders has claimed that their maternity services are not under review.

A spokesperson said: ““We reiterate our sincere apologies to the family for the loss they have experienced and are dedicated to learning from this situation and making improvements to our systems and processes. This includes the development of an action plan in response to the recommendations recently received by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

 “A significant adverse event review was carried out at the time, which was shared with the family and with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS).

 “We can confirm that NHS Borders maternity services are not under review by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, but we continue to work proactively in partnership with them.

 “We maintain a strong focus on safety in maternity services and have an active local safety programme to ensure learning is used to improve all aspects of how we provide our service.”