A NEW “tagging” system to help prevent mix-ups with IVF babies is being introduced at a city hospital.

An electronic system which can identify and track a couple’s sperm and eggs throughout the process of IVF will be available at Liverpool Women’s Hospital as part of a £5.5m expansion to its Hewitt Centre for Reproductive Medicine, which is set to become the largest centre of its kind in Europe.

It will be one of just 11 units in the UK that has ordered the installation of the new electronic witnessing system.

Although the hospital has never had any mix-ups of its own, it cites an incident in 2002 in another hospital in which black twins were born to a white couple as an example of what can go wrong.

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.