Sarah McWhirter

The parents spoke of how “shocked, hurt and let down” they were by the revelation that the social media platform was used to communicate their unborn son’s CTG heart monitoring readings – even though the senior obstetrician was only minutes away within the hospital site.

The mother had experienced a difficult pregnancy, with ongoing and worsening bleeding leading to 10 previous visits to Borders General Hospital, but the couple were repeatedly assured there was nothing to worry about.

Their son was born in August 2022 at 31 weeks’ gestation, and passed away five days later. Despite the many previous visits to 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 Significant Adverse Event Review (SAER) by the trust also established that, once the consultant did arrive when the woman was preparing to give birth, they requested a second ultrasound – incurring a further delay of nine minutes in the baby being delivered.

Following their investigation, NHS Borders apologised to the family.

A complaint was made to ICO, which has been upheld as an infringement of data protection law. 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.

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

“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,” said the bereaved mother.

Sarah McWhirter, principal lawyer at Slater and Gordon in Scotland, said: “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.”