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By Suzanna Kerridge, 26 June 1998 09:10

COMMENT The latest official report on the state of the UK National Health Service's (NHS) Year 2000 programme is called 'A Stitch in Time'. A stitch in time? More like too many stitches and not enough seamstresses. The Audit Commissions' report on the NHS's laxidasical approach to the Year 2000 is enough to make the most ardent Year 2000 guru weep. The NHS has been warned in two official reports and countless surveys that it is heading over a cliff unless it puts its systems in order. But instead of putting on the brakes, the health authority and trust managers are taking no action to avoid the precipice. Shame there won't be any medical equipment working to scoop them back together when they hit the ground. Someone needs to assume the huge responsibility for dragging the NHS into compliance. When the finger of accusation is being pointed, the person it is pointed at rarely admits the true extent of the problem. In-fighting doesn't help either: the NHS Executive uses the sheer complexity of the organisation as an excuse, while the health authorities blame their inactivity on a lack of funding and insufficient central planning. Money earmarked for single-sex wards has already been re-directed to the Year 2000 programme. But more than two thirds of health services have yet to draw up a strategy. The final cost remains unknown. If any of this finds echoes in your organisation, try to find that brake pedal now. The buck-passing and issue-ducking going on at the NHS should stand as a caveat to all companies undergoing a millennium conversion.