Patients' lives may be in danger because of the lack of urgency shown by the Department of Health in preparing for the Year 2000 (Y2K) millennium bug, consultants were told.
No one could accurately predict the problem, or how much it would compromise medical care, according to Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary-general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association.
Consultants passed a motion seeking an assurance from the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, that patient care and safety would not be endangered because of inadequate preparation.
The Department had seemed to show only lethargy and lack of purpose, Mr Fitzpatrick said. While much publicity had been given to the possibility of widespread computer failure in 2000, other dates might cause difficulties such as 09.09.99.
What was potentially devastating was electronic equipment with embedded microchips that were "date aware" or contained electronic clocks. Included were many medical devices, infusion pumps, pacemaker monitors, heart defibrillators and X-ray machines. He said medical records and screening programmes could be affected, as could life-support equipment and calculations of drug and radio-therapy doses in treatment.
The British NHS chief executive, Sir Alan Langlands, had said he could not guarantee that nobody would die as a result of the problem, Mr Fitzpatrick said. When the IHCA wrote individually to the Mater, St Vincent's and Beaumont hospitals they received the same pro-forma letter from each.