Chennai: RFID tags to check baby lifting

Chennai: In order to prevent incidents of baby theft in government hospitals, Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital is implementing biometric security system called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Having being proposed a year ago, the RFID security system is to be inaugurated soon at the hospital.

The access to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of KMC can be controlled and checked for the entry of any foreigner as the RFID can alert the security systems with an alarm, if the baby is touched by anyone else other than the mother and the patient attender.

 Costing around Rs 8 lakh, the security system will have a display and scanners attached to the computer software to feed the information with photographs of the baby, mother and the attendant.  To prevent baby theft in delivery and non delivery rooms, it has been started on a trial basis.

 “The photographs of the child, mother and the attendant will be taken and stored in the computers. A green tag will be given to mother, while an orange tag to an attendant that they will wear around their neck. The RFID tag will be on the ankle of the child,” said Dr K. Vasanthamani, dean, KMC.

 “Once mother takes the baby, the screens will display pictures of the baby, mother and the attendant with a green background. The same happens if the attendant moves the baby, but the background colour will be of orange colour. However, if it is someone who is unrecognized by the computer scanner, the screen will display red background on the screen and alarm will go off,” added Dr Vasanthamani.

  The siren alarm has been installed a little away from the entrance of the unit such that the security can be alerted and any foreign person cannot escape from either the labour ward or non-delivery rooms. The system has been started off on a trial basis at the hospital and will be implemented completely this month. More than 600 deliveries take place every month at Kilpauk Medical College.

 The RFID system was first introduced in the Government General Hospital in Madurai three years ago, and was expanded to Government Hospital for Women and Children, Egmore and Kasturba Gandhi Hospital last year.