MATERNITY units throughout the region are getting ready to launch a system to give newborn babies unique NHS numbers.

From tomorrow, all babies born in England and Wales will be issued with an NHS number at birth.

Until now, babies have no number until their birth is registered - often as long as six weeks after they are born.

During that time, the baby may have undergone treatment in different locations or even had a change of name or address.

The new system is meant to give the baby an identifying tag from birth, helping to ensure that personal medical records are consistent and available to NHS staff across the UK from day one.

Under the new system, midwives will request and receive a newborn baby's NHS number as soon as possible after birth from the new NHS Central Issue System.

The number is then passed on the Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths in a reversal of the previous procedure.

Barbara Woodward, information manager for the Women and Children's Department at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, said: "Once the system goes live the midwife in the hospital puts the baby's details into the computer system and she will be issued with a unique NHS number."

Mrs Woodward said it was hoped that the rapid issuing of NHS numbers would reduce delays and errors.

For home births, community midwives will enter the baby's details into the computer as soon as they get back to their hospital base, she said.

The ten-character numbers will be printed on the Birth Notification form produced by the local maternity unit.

All 67 million NHS patients already have their own number.

The switch to issuing numbers electronically is an important step towards producing a Electronic Health Record for every NHS user.