Sheffield NHS Trust seeks electronic baby tagging supplier

One of the UK’s busiest maternity wards plans to implement an electronic baby-tagging system for newborn children.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is looking to install the technology at the neonatal unit of the Jessop Wing Maternity Hospital, which is part of Royal Hallamshire Hospital near the city centre.

The trust is seeking a supplier to provide and maintain the tags over a three-year contract, scheduled to commence on 15 March 2018. The trust will have the option of extending the deal by two years, when it reaches its conclusion in 2021. Bids from potential providers are being invited until 9 February 2018.

Electronic baby tagging – a security measure that alerts staff if a baby is unexpectedly moved – has become more commonly used by hospitals in recent years, with the first reported use in an NHS maternity ward taking place in 2005.

Opened 17 years ago, the Jessop Wing contains 22 beds in its labour ward and delivers about 7,000 babies every year – which equates to about 19 births every day. The facility also includes an admission triage area, an antenatal ward, a high-dependency unit, and three postnatal wards, one of which specialises in caring for women who have had a caesarean section.

The Sheffield NHS trust employs a total of 16,000 staff across five hospitals, including the Northern General Hospital, the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, and the Weston Park Dental Hospital.