HOSPITAL chiefs are planning a disaster dummy run in a bid to pinpoint the consequences of the "Millennium Meltdown" of computer equipment in the year 2000.

Information technology experts at the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust are planning the trial in several departments.

The testing of equipment in the pathology, payroll and finance departments will take place later this year and help trust chiefs spot possible computer malfunctions which could plunge hospitals into chaos in the Millennium.

The problem has arisen because many computers, software and electronic equipment only have two-digit system for dates. When the year changes to 2000, many computers and other pieces of equipment will interpret the year as 00 and cause systems to fail or register incorrect data.

The trust has already identified that it needs to spend £160,500 to replace or adjust equipment in readiness for the year 2000, which includes alterations to maternity equipment costing about £50,000.

Technology experts are also planning to test the backup switchboard later this year.

They have also drawn up contingency plans to cope with the worst case scenarios and "domino effect" failures.

For example, if an item of equipment fails, the contingency plan requires manual procedures to be introduced using on-call staff until back-up equipment is made available.

But bosses are considering what to do if the on-call staff cannot be contacted due to phone problems, back-up equipment cannot be transferred due to lift failure and patients cannot be transferred to other hospitals due to problems in ambulance control.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.