A BBC investigation found NHSBT had sent the names, dates of birth and types of organs being offered or needed to members of hospital transplant teams who were using pagers, unaware they were not encrypted.

An NHSBT spokesperson said: ‘Organ transplantation is a time-critical service where rapid communication is essential to save lives. 

‘To inform hospitals about an opportunity of a transplant for a patient on the waiting list, we send an urgent message. This is sent via a system to a hospital transplant team who receive these messages via email, SMS text and, until recently, pagers.   

‘We have learnt, when the system sent a message to a pager, the data was not encrypted.  

‘We took immediate action to stop sending patient identifiable information. We reported it to the Information Commissioner and our regulators, and are carrying out an internal investigation.  

‘We are deeply sorry for the concern this will cause patients and their families. Protecting their information is extremely important to us and we are committed to ensuring operational needs are balanced with the highest standards of information governance and data protection.'