Clinical Advice and Chat Disclaimer
Applies to EricaAi automated responses and live chat with regulated healthcare professionals

Our service can provide information and clinical advice within the professional scope of our regulated healthcare team. It is designed to support you, but it does not replace care from your own midwife, maternity unit, GP, prescriber or other healthcare team. EricaAi may display an automated response before an expert has reviewed it. That response is provisional until expert review is complete. |

1. Emergencies and time-critical concerns

Do not use EricaAi or live chat as an emergency, urgent maternity, labour or birth service. The chat is not continuously monitored and a response, including expert review of an EricaAi response, may not be immediate.
·   For a life-threatening or serious emergency in the UK, call 999 or go to the nearest Accident & Emergency department.
·   Contact your own midwife or maternity unit immediately if you are worried about yourself or your baby, including concerns about labour, waters breaking, vaginal bleeding, severe or persistent pain, reduced or changed baby movements, breathing difficulty, a seizure, or feeling seriously unwell. This list is not exhaustive.
·   For urgent help that is not life-threatening, or when you are unsure what to do, contact NHS 111 or your usual healthcare provider.
·   Outside the UK, contact the appropriate local emergency, urgent care or maternity service.
Never wait for an EricaAi response, live chat response or expert review before seeking urgent or emergency care.

2. Regulated professional live chat

Our live chat is provided by regulated healthcare professionals, including qualified and NMC-registered midwives. They may provide information, clinical advice and appropriate signposting within their professional competence and the scope of the service.
Advice is based on the information you provide during a remote text conversation. The professional cannot physically examine you or your baby, take observations, perform tests, access every part of your medical or maternity record, or see changes that may only be apparent in person.
For those reasons, the professional may advise you to contact your own healthcare team, maternity unit, GP, prescriber, NHS 111 or emergency services. You should follow that advice promptly. Your own healthcare team remains responsible for your ongoing care and is usually best placed to assess you with access to your records, local pathways and any required physical examination.

3. How EricaAi works

EricaAi is an automated artificial intelligence system. It is not a person, midwife, doctor or other healthcare professional.
EricaAi operates from a closed, controlled knowledge base and is configured to respond only to the subjects and questions within its trained scope. It is not intended to search the open internet or provide answers outside that defined knowledge base. Where a question is outside scope, unclear or requires information EricaAi does not have, the service may be unable to answer and should direct the conversation for human review or further care.
A user may see EricaAi's automated response before it has been reviewed by an expert. Any such response must be treated as provisional, not as a final professional opinion. It must not be relied on for an emergency, a time-critical concern or a decision that requires immediate clinical assessment.
Every EricaAi response will be reviewed by an appropriately qualified expert before the conversation is marked as resolved. The expert may confirm, clarify, add to, amend or correct the automated response, and may advise you to contact your own healthcare team or another service.

4. Clinical and technical limitations

The use of a closed knowledge base and expert review are safety controls, but they do not remove all risk. An automated or human response may still be affected by incomplete, inaccurate or misunderstood information, technical issues, the limits of remote communication, or differences in local clinical guidance.
Advice given through the service relates to the question and information available at that time. It is not a guarantee about your health, pregnancy, labour, birth, recovery or your baby's condition, and it may not remain appropriate if your symptoms or circumstances change.
Clinical practices and referral pathways can differ between maternity units, NHS organisations and countries. Where our advice differs from your personal care plan or from advice given by the healthcare professionals directly responsible for you, contact your own team promptly for clarification.

5. Your responsibilities

·   Give information that is accurate, complete and relevant, and tell us if your symptoms or circumstances change.
·   Do not use the service under another person's identity or rely on advice given for someone else.
·   Follow any recommendation to seek an in-person assessment, urgent review or emergency care.
·   Continue to attend appointments and follow your agreed care plan unless your own healthcare team advises otherwise.
·   Do not start, stop or change prescribed medication or treatment solely because of an unreviewed EricaAi response. Medication decisions should be confirmed with an appropriately qualified professional who has the information needed to advise you safely.

6. Privacy and health information

Information shared in chat may include health information and other sensitive personal information. Our Privacy Notice explains how personal information is collected, used, accessed, stored, shared and protected, and describes your data protection rights.
Authorised healthcare professionals and other authorised personnel may access the conversation where necessary to review EricaAi responses, provide the service, manage safety, support clinical governance or meet legal and regulatory obligations, as described in the Privacy Notice.
Only provide information that is reasonably necessary for your question. Do not use chat to send an emergency request, time-critical information or information that requires immediate clinical action.

7. Availability and third-party information

We do not guarantee that EricaAi or live chat will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free. Service interruptions, delays or technical faults may occur.
Links or references to third-party information are provided for convenience. They do not replace assessment or advice from the healthcare professionals responsible for your care.
Healthcare guidance, technology, professional standards and legal requirements may change. We may update the service and this disclaimer when necessary.

8. Legal rights and liability

We will provide the service with reasonable care and skill. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for loss or harm caused by information you omit or provide inaccurately, failure to follow advice to seek appropriate care, use of the service outside its stated scope, or reliance on an EricaAi response before expert review has been completed.
Nothing in this disclaimer excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or affects your statutory rights.
This disclaimer should be read together with our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice. By starting or continuing a chat, you acknowledge the nature, scope and limitations of the service described above.

Updated on: 24/07/2026