Plans to neutralise the millennium bug, which threatens to bring chaos to computer systems at the turn of the century, are being drawn up by health bosses.

The House of Commons public accounts committee has voiced concern that the NHS might not be able to guarantee the safety of patients if the problem causes the level of upheaval many fear.

But Airedale NHS Trust claims to be well advanced in its preparations to tackle the problem and has already set in motion contingency plans.

Airedale's finance chief Janet Crouch said: "We think we have covered all the major areas and have set up contingency plans if anything major goes wrong.

"Airedale is quite well advanced compared to other areas, but even so we can't guarantee everything will be right because we don't really know what the full effect will be.

"We think we have done as much as anybody to be prepared.''

She said the problem lay in the system of dating on computers, which will need to switch to 00 from 99.

It could result in a situation where a child on record as born in 1997 and aged three in 2000 and due to be called back for a check-up could be wiped off the system because the computer would not recognise the age.

Similarly the system could instead reinterpret the information and wrongly conclude that the child was 97.

The spokeswoman said the trust had attempted to identify such potential problems, and had also been in touch with suppliers to ensure new equipment overcame them.

David Davis, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee said: "The millennium threat poses a serious risk of disruption to Government business and there are worrying signs that not all of the public sector will be ready in time.''

Health trust which felt they needed more money should press the NHS for funds.

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