ONLY two out of ten hospitals in the region have electronic tagging measures in place to combat baby-snatching, it was revealed last night.

A two-day-old girl was snatched at the weekend from Wordsley Hospital in Stourbridge, West Midlands, which was in the process of installing an electronic tagging system.

But a survey of North-East and North Yorkshire hospitals shows that very few maternity units electronically tag newborn babies.

In one case - the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton - a tagging system installed at a cost of £13,500 in the mid 1990s was switched off three years ago because of persistent problems.

Instead, most hospitals in the region rely on variations of locked maternity units, entry phones, closed circuit television cameras, cot alarms and swipe cards for staff.

While the West Midlands baby was found after a tip-off, there remains confusion over the best way to protect maternity units from baby snatchers.

Mothers at Darlington Memorial Hospital have their babies electronically tagged after birth and are warned not to try to take the child out of the unit.

One mother who recently gave birth at the Darlington unit said "all hell was let loose" after a mother took her baby into the corridor without telling staff.

But mothers at the neighbouring Bishop Auckland General Hospital, part of the same South Durham trust, do not have their babies electronically tagged.

A spokeswoman for the South Durham trust said access to the Darlington maternity unit was controlled by an entry phone system and a similar system is planned for when the new Bishop Auckland unit opens shortly.

The University Hospital of North Durham uses electronic tagging as well as security cameras.

However, the region's largest maternity unit, at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, does not use electronic tagging.

Jane Herve, head of midwifery at the RVI said: "We have CCTV and other measures in place."

Other hospitals which do not have electronic tagging, but rely on other systems of security, include James Cook hospital in Middlesbrough, North Tees and Hartlepool hospitals, Sunderland Royal Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.

Dawn Griffiths, 32, from Middlesbrough, whose baby was snatched from a London maternity unit in 1990 and not returned to her for 17 days, called for better security in hospitals.

"I can't understand how this could have happened again," she said.