This cross-sectional survey assessed the adoption of home-based antenatal telemonitoring and obstetric teleconsultations across all 76 responding UK NHS trusts (out of 145 contacted; 52.4% response rate), covering devices used, clinical conditions managed, implementation barriers, and perceived advantages.
Home monitoring and teleconsultations were in use in 61.8% (47/76) and 68.4% (52/76) of trusts, respectively. Blood pressure monitoring was the dominant modality (95.8% of monitoring trusts), primarily for chronic hypertension (87.2%). Teleconsultations were most common for gestational diabetes (65.4%) and delivered mainly by telephone (98.1%). Teaching trusts were significantly more likely to use remote monitoring than non-teaching trusts (P = 0.03). Key barriers were high cost and lack of clinical support; key advantages were patient convenience and reduced hospital burden.
- Over half of NHS trusts did not respond (52.4% response rate), risking non-response bias. - Respondents were primarily from English maternity services, limiting generalizability to the full UK. - Survey design (cross-sectional, self-reported) cannot assess clinical outcomes or quality of care delivered remotely.
Most UK NHS trusts now offer some form of obstetric telemonitoring or teleconsultation, but uptake is uneven—teaching hospitals lead adoption, and cost plus lack of clinical support remain the main barriers for others. Clinicians and service leads should advocate for national digital frameworks to standardize and expand these services, particularly for hypertension and gestational diabetes management.
