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By Dan Ilett, 7 September 2005 15:30

NEWS Doctors are to rely on an early-warning computer program to help them prioritise patients most in need of hospital admittance, the government claims.

The Department of Health said the software will use a range of patient data, such as age, type of illness and recent visits, to see who needs a hospital bed first.

The software, developed by researchers at New York University and Health Dialog, is available free to the NHS from today. Developers will continue to work on the program until the beginning of 2006.

Paul Watson, medical director of the Essex Strategic Health Authority, which commissioned the project, said: "This will really help us improve services by targeting the right patients. This will then help prevent patients' clinical condition deteriorating to the point that they need emergency hospital admission."

Earlier this year, the DoH announced a major overhaul in the way the NHS will care for people with long-term illness. The DoH said the changes are to reduce the number of times they have emergency visits to hospital.

Health minister Lord Warner said in a statement: "In January, we announced sweeping changes to the way in which NHS and social care organisations deliver care to people with long-term conditions. As these changes are implemented, we are seeing excellent work going on across the country."