Gov’t introducing childbirth bedside registration app

THE Government will be introducing a new bedside registration app next year to immediately capture childbirth information.

This was disclosed by minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, Floyd Green, during his 2022/23 Sectoral Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on May 24.

He noted that the app is being developed under the National Identification System (NIDS) project in collaboration with the Registrar General’s Department (RGD).

“We have already procured 60 purpose-built tablets which will be distributed to our registration officers. Upon launch of the app, our registration officers will be able to populate birth certificate [information] in real time,” Green said.

He explained that once the information is inputted at the mother’s bedside, it is automatically uploaded on the RGD’s system.

“So, where we are heading… is that by next year, mothers will be able to leave hospitals or birth centres with verifiable… electronic copies of their children’s birth certificates,” the minister said.

Green pointed out that there has been an increase in the number of children who are named immediately, since the bedside registration programme’s introduction and provision of the first birth certificate free of cost.

“We are capturing… 99 per cent of the births, but we want to go a step further. We [are] giving the bedside registration programme a facelift through NIDS,” he said.

NIDS, which is being implemented by the Office of the Prime Minister, is intended to provide a comprehensive and secure structure to enable the collection and storage of identity information.