ktlight
18th May 2011, 09:52
For your information:
A South African public hospital plans to tag babies electronically as one of several security measures to beat baby-snatching.
If it goes ahead, Tygerberg Hospital would become the first public health facility in the Western Cape to use the tag.
The device is activated if a tagged baby is removed from a specific area.
The infrastructure for the plan is expected to be completed next year.
In some UK hospitals, babies have a personalised electronically programmed tag attached to their ankle. This is different from the tags in use in another South African hospital, Life Kingsbury Hospital in Claremont, Cape Town, which consist of a waterproof barcode placed on the baby’s back. The device looks like a plaster.
Tygerberg spokesman Regan Beukes said this tagging system had been used for years.
There have been several incidents of baby-snatching from maternity wards in South African hospitals in recent years.
In October last year, a baby boy was snatched from Khayelitsha Day Hospital in Cape Town.
The safety of babies in hospital was highlighted in July 2009 when Siphisihle Ncumani was snatched from a maternity ward at the hospital. He was found about a month later.
It was established then that no hospital staff had played a role in his abduction and that a woman, Bulelwa Xeza, had got into the ward before smuggling the baby out. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
In 2005, a newborn disappeared from a hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, north of Pretoria.
At the time of the abduction at Tygerberg, a number of measures were announced – including tags and CCTV cameras to increase security.
Since then, Health Department spokeswoman Faiza Steyn said, a number of these plans were implemented at the hospital.
source
http://www.thestar.co.za/babies-barcoded-for-security-1.1067027
A South African public hospital plans to tag babies electronically as one of several security measures to beat baby-snatching.
If it goes ahead, Tygerberg Hospital would become the first public health facility in the Western Cape to use the tag.
The device is activated if a tagged baby is removed from a specific area.
The infrastructure for the plan is expected to be completed next year.
In some UK hospitals, babies have a personalised electronically programmed tag attached to their ankle. This is different from the tags in use in another South African hospital, Life Kingsbury Hospital in Claremont, Cape Town, which consist of a waterproof barcode placed on the baby’s back. The device looks like a plaster.
Tygerberg spokesman Regan Beukes said this tagging system had been used for years.
There have been several incidents of baby-snatching from maternity wards in South African hospitals in recent years.
In October last year, a baby boy was snatched from Khayelitsha Day Hospital in Cape Town.
The safety of babies in hospital was highlighted in July 2009 when Siphisihle Ncumani was snatched from a maternity ward at the hospital. He was found about a month later.
It was established then that no hospital staff had played a role in his abduction and that a woman, Bulelwa Xeza, had got into the ward before smuggling the baby out. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
In 2005, a newborn disappeared from a hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, north of Pretoria.
At the time of the abduction at Tygerberg, a number of measures were announced – including tags and CCTV cameras to increase security.
Since then, Health Department spokeswoman Faiza Steyn said, a number of these plans were implemented at the hospital.
source
http://www.thestar.co.za/babies-barcoded-for-security-1.1067027