Huge investment is being injected into hospital services in Bradford to prevent chaos from the Millennium computer bug.

At Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital as much as £750,000 is expected to be spent checking and replacing computer systems to make sure everything from complex life-support systems in intensive care to lifts taking patients between floors remain in operation.

The exercise comes on top of a massive planning exercise for Millennium celebrations, combining preparations for significant numbers of casualties with worst-case Millennium bug breakdowns.

Extra staff will be on duty and one innovative idea could be a non-alcohol Millennium party for key personnel standing by in case of a crisis.

John Dammon, who is heading Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust's Millennium bug team, said he was confident the problem would be overcome.

The main worry lay in potential breakdowns of essential services outside the hospital's control, including water, electricity and telephones, coupled with high demand for urgent medical treatment linked to the celebrations.

A contingency plan covering 50 different areas was being put together and key systems which would have the biggest impact on patient care or the hospital had been looked at first.

Already a number of important computer systems had been replaced or upgraded.

The hospitals also had their own back-up electricity generators and water in case of emergency. "Clearly we need to take this issue very, very seriously," he said.

"It is a major exercise involving massive amounts of time and effort but the problem at the end of the day is that we do not know what to expect - nobody does.

"If the electricity goes and the water and the telephones as well, then we would all have a problem.

"We have been assured that won't happen but that doesn't stop us worrying about it."

A Yorkshire Water spokesman said: "We are confident the progress we are making to make sure our equipment and services are year 2000 compliant will give high-level protection against any breakdowns."

A BT spokesman said the company was working closely with customers to minimise problems.

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