Monday, September 13, 1999 Published at 11:20 GMT 12:20 UK

NHS services in England are at no risk of severe disruption due to the millennium bug - although most services still have work to be done, according to the government's latest NHS Year 2000 Monitoring figures.

The figures - which were published quarterly since March 1998 and every two months since March 1999 - are supposed to assess NHS progress towards millennium readiness.

Systems ranging from life support machines to lifts all use microchips that could fail when the date changes to 1 January 2000 unless they are guaranteed year 2000 compliant.

Because so many services depend on computer systems and imbedded chips, it had been feared that the millennium bug could bring the NHS to a standstill.

But the government says the new figures show there should be little to worry about come 31 December.

Traffic lights

The figures, which refer to the state of the NHS in July, use the traffic lights system of monitoring employed by the Action 2000 agency used for all government services.

They show that the NHS is:

0% Red - which indicates "severe risk of material disruption" 87% Amber - which indicates "work to be done but containment plans are in place" 13% Blue - which indicates "no risk of material disruption"

This compares to 96% Amber and 4% Blue when the last set of figures were published.

The NHS has a self-imposed deadline to achieve a Blue rating by, although a Department of Health spokeswoman said contingency measures would be in place if this could not be achieved.

Work continues

"Work is going on in every part of the NHS to ensure that local hospitals and health care organisations are going to be ready for Year 2000 in good time," Health Minister Gisela Stuart said.

"These returns show that progress is continually being made and any organisation which is seen to be falling behind will be targeted for extra support to ensure that they can meet our deadlines.

"I will take action with these organisations to ensure they are bought up to speed."

She said it was important to note that the figures offered a snapshot of the situation in July and many more NHS organisations would be Blue by now.

The Year 2000 Monitoring covers all 476 NHS organisations in England, comprising 346 hospital trusts, 31 ambulance trusts and 99 health authorities.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), September 17, 1999