Computer Weekly (Thurs 23rd July 1998) Headlines that NHS trusts want to suspend non-emergency operations in Dec 1999 keeping tens of thousands of hospital beds free to cope with possible emergencies related to the millennium.

More info at http://www.computerweekly.co.uk/ (requires registration)

Mark

-- Mark (aag78@dial.pipex.com), July 23, 1998

Answers

Hmmm.

I'd have thought a much more prosaic reason for wanting to suspend such operations is so that there's no-one hooked up to life-support equipment that might fail when the clock ticks over, unless there's absolutely no choice in the matter. Personally, there's absolutely no way that I'd accept having non-emergency surgery that would land me in hospital over 1/1/2000 whether the hospital folks thought it was OK or not!

Another prosaic reason is that there will be lots of hospital staff away "sick" (mostly with self-inflicted minor C2H5OH poisoning) or on duty suffering after-effects of the same, and lots of admissions for similar reasons.

Then, of course, there is the possibility that a lot of lights will go out ...

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), July 23, 1998.