Srinagar, Dec 4: In a bid to avoid baby swapping, and easy identification of hospitalized neonates who often look alike, Valley’s sole children hospital at Sonawar has introduced “international tagging system” for the newborn whereby they are tied “foolproof” colour bands: blue for boy and pink for girl.
 Giving details the hospital officials said: “The neonates admitted in GB Pant Children Hospital, Srinagar are now being tagged with patient identification bands, a pink identity band for girls and blue for boys, a practice that adheres to the identification system used internationally.”
 Deputy Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Saleem Khan said “decision for the innovation was taken to prevent baby-swapping apprehensions for attendants whose neonates are admitted in neonatal intensive care unit and neonatology wards.”
 “The colour-coded neonatal identification tags introduced,” Dr Khan said “are totally foolproof.” “Pink is for Pinky and Blue for Baba,” he said adding “Once fastened on child’s wrist or leg can only be cut open with a scissor.”
 “The waterproof tag carries vital information like a baby’s date of birth, sex, mother’s name and the hospital MRD number.”
 When contacted the hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Muneer Ahmad Masoodi said: “The hospital administration decided to invest in this colour-coded tagging identification method to ensure that we restrict entry of attendants in neonatal ICU by assuring that their child is secured and there is no possibility of any doubt about the identity of a child.”
 Dr Masoodi said: “This innovation is first of its kind in the state of Jammu & Kashmir and aims at further reduction of infection transmission as attendants are among major carriers of infections to sick neonates”.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 4 Dec 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 4 Dec 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 5 Dec 2012 00:00:00 IST