A NHS hospital has managed to become the first ever in the nation to issue all the new born babies with bar codes in the place of the more traditional handwritten tags.

The system to put an end to the mistakes caused due to illegible handwriting of the medical staff was introduced by the Kettering General Hospital's maternity division.

All the new born babies will now be getting their very own personalized bat codes, which would be strapped on their ankles. The midwives would zap these with a scanner to easily read the baby's name.

Within a mere seconds, the medical staff, with the help of the barcode, would be able to find a child's name, date of birth, national insurance number and name of the mother. Also, they would be able to trace the blood samples at the mere press of a button via a local laboratory that tests for conditions like sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis.

"The new system is quicker and safer because the bar-coded information can be quickly read by the computers without the possibility of human transcription errors", said Paula Lilburn, the hospital's Information and Technology Project Manager.

The first ever babies to be bar coded were born during this week.