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Technology Stocks : Year 2000 (Y2K) Embedded Systems & Infrastructure Problem
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To: John Mansfield who wrote (107)2/20/1998 5:01:00 PM
From: John Mansfield  Read Replies (1) of 618
 
'Patient care to suffer as NHS fixes millennium bug'

'Mixed-sex wards, shabby hospitals and reduced patient care...'

'That was the blunt message from the NHS Confederation last week'

'...without new money it was inevitable that service levels and other projects would suffer while the health service fixed its date bug problem'

'.. but money will need to be diverted to year 2000 work at the expense of other projects'

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Mixed-sex wards, shabby hospitals and reduced patient care are part of the price the public will pay for making the health service year 2000 compliant. The NHS also faces bed closures and mountains of paperwork as part of contingency planning.

That was the blunt message from the NHS Confederation last week to the Commons science and technology committee investigating the impact of the millennium problem on the UK. But the confederation was angry that it did not have the opportunity to present its demands to the government.

These include more support from the NHS Executive and top down pressure on IT suppliers, especially via the Government's Medical Devices Agency. The confederation accused the agency of complacency in its attitude to the dangers posed by embedded systems in critical medical equipment.

Representing the country's 500 NHS trusts, the confederation warned the committee that without new money it was inevitable that service levels and other projects would suffer while the health service fixed its date bug problem. The confederation estimated that achieving year 2000 compliance in the NHS will cost at least œ500m.

Although the confederation said some new money has been promised to pay for the re-organisation, it argued that the NHS needed 3% more real money each year on its annual œ44bn budget. This would be simply to cope with ongoing pressures due to factors such as population growth and ageing.

Average costs for fixing a hospital are between œ250,000 and œ1m. Elderfield reported that costs so far for the trusts in the South and West Region are likely to be around œ30m. But firm estimates will not be available until the end of March, when all trusts have to present detailed year 2000 budgets to the NHS Executive and the Government.

"We believe we will be ready on time because a lot of work has already started, but money will need to be diverted to year 2000 work at the expense of other projects we'd have wanted to do, such as moving to single-sex wards," said Graham Elderfield, chief executive of the Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Trust.

computerweekly.co.uk
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