Mums to be in Lanarkshire could be waving goodbye to their paper notes later this year thanks to upgraded technology.

Midwives will get a tablet to record patient notes which can then be shared between relevant clinics by using the BadgerNet IT system.

Carol Lawrence, project manager, said: “Manual maternity records will be replaced with BadgerNet, an innovative maternity application that will support women from their first contact in antenatal care through to delivery and postnatal care.

“BadgerNet Maternity is designed as a full end-to-end maternity system. It allows real-time recording of all events wherever they occur: in the hospital, community, or home.

“The electronic record will be accessible at the point of care, avoid the need to locate the paper case records, reduces data replication and eliminate the issue of lost paperwork.”

Community midwives will each have their own tablet on which to capture clinical data and document patient records, in real time, closer to home. Hospital staff will have access to tablets and desktops on which to record clinical data.

The new scheme will come into action in the autumn this year.

Lyn Clyde, women’s services manager, said: “The maternity record within the BadgerNet Service will cover all activity and data collection during the entire pregnancy journey, from booking through to delivery and postnatal discharge.

“It means that when an expectant mum arrives in maternity all the details of her pregnancy can be seen at the touch of a button.

“It will also give us greater opportunity to audit and monitor the service we provide as data will be more easily captured and analysed.

“The new system has the potential to improve the quality of care given to mums and help staff do their jobs more efficiently.”