The millennium bug and the potential impact on NHS hospitals

An NHS hospital is a complex organisation with many departments which are all inter‐dependent. The “millennium bug” can potentially affect any or all of its systems. Disruption in one department, over the millennium period, is likely to affect the overall delivery of health care with potential threat to life. The NHS Executive has identified the year 2000 issue as the first non‐clinical priority and every hospital has established a business continuity plan. However, many of the critical risks are outside the hospitals’ direct control and service delivery will essentially depend on the ability of key suppliers to maintain their business continuity. Unlike in industry or profit‐making organisations, the cost of assessing the risk, testing and replacing non‐compliant equipment in hospitals cannot be passed to the consumer. Additional costs will have to be met from within existing resources which will have a major effect on the already stretched health care provisions.