Medical device suppliers fail to tackle Y2K

Key suppliers of medical devices ? including Hew-lett-Packard ? are still failing to provide millennium compliance information, despite a call from the Medical Devices Agency, writes Dan Sabbagh.

The equipment regulator has come under fire from NHS IT managers for not maintaining a database of compliant suppliers, and for not placing enough pressure on suppliers.

Diane Milan, head of information and IT at Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow health authority, said: ?A lot of suppliers are not providing undertakings about compliance. They?re worried about legal liability.?

Last November, the Medical Devices Agency issued a circular to all NHS units, stating that manufacturers should notify users of models that need to be upgraded or replaced by the beginning of 1998.

One leading manufacturer of medical devices, Hewlett-Packard, has not yet done this. The company told Computing that it aimed to compete an assessment of its entire medical product line by the end of June.

Figures vary as to how many medical devices could be affected. Private health provider Bupa has budgeted for a 30% replacement rate, but others have discovered date dependencies in as few as 1% of devices.

But any failures could have a serious impact on patient health. The British Standards Institute says that some non-compliant intravenous infusion pumps ? which calculate drug dosages ? will shut down during the year 2000, believing they were last recalibrated 100 years ago.