Planning for the Year 2000

We are pleased to report that all potential risks in relation to the arrival of the Year 2000 were highlighted and appropriate action taken with minimum disruption to our Centre and our patients.

Our millennium plans were accepted by the Department of Health and in November 1999, we took delivery of Year 2000 compliant versions of computer hardware and software. This resolved two issues concerning information technology, which were outstanding from 1998/99.

In addition we contributed to a fact pack which was sent to every household on the Wirral, detailing services available and emergency contacts over the millennium.

In order to minimise disruption to patients over the long Christmas and New Year holidays, a number of staff volunteered to work treating patients who would not normally have received treatment on a Bank Holiday.

Additional nursing staff were placed on a reserve list to work over the New Year weekend and special pay rates were agreed with staff who gave up their millennium holiday to provide patient care.

The costs associated with Year 2000 were met from the Trust's normal capital and revenue budgets. There are no costs outstanding.

In the event, the millennium passed without any failure or difficulty and our thanks are expressed to every member of staff who made this possible.