A LIVERPOOL hospital is to tag embryos electronically to reduce the chance of IVF mix-ups.

Bosses at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust announced the move as part of a £5.5m expansion of its Hewitt Centre for Reproductive Medicine - which is set to become the largest IVF centre of its kind in Europe.

The move comes following a number of mix-ups at IVF clinics throughout the UK, including in 2002 when black twins were born to a white couple.

Dr Steve Troup, scientific director of the Hewitt Centre, said: “The system means that when the eggs, sperm or embryos are put under a microscope it will electronically recognise exactly which patient the dish or tube belongs to.

“In the past we did this manually, which was effective, but this new system will make it even more efficient and avoid any potential problems that have occurred in other hospitals. The electronic witnessing system offers patients increased confidence that their samples are safe and will not be mixed up during treatment.”

The system uses radio frequency tags to track sperm samples, eggs and embryos through the whole IVF process. A unique radio-tag is attached to all dishes, tubes and sample pots which contain the patients’ samples.

The patients also have their own tagged ID card.

Whenever these are used in any procedure, the system automatically reads the patients’ information from the tag and electronically witnesses the dish or tube before the next stage of the process can continue.

If the tag’s details do not match those of the patient or if samples from different patients are brought into the working area in the laboratory at the same time, the system sounds an alarm to alert the embryologist.

The 1,400sq ft, two-storey extension to the Hewitt Centre is set to fully open in March 2010 and initial phases of the unit have already been completed including a new state-of-the-art laboratory and an en-suite patient recovery area.