BLACKPOOL'S casualty department has won a £450,000 tonic to help boost patient facilities.

Staff at Victoria Hospital's busy accident and emergency department were jubilant this week after receiving one of the top allocations in the North West as part of a £115m NHS upgrade nationwide.

Blackpool A and E consultant Mark Sedgwick said: "It's fantastic news - we bid for £450,000 and we got it. We take the view that Fylde hospitals have not been particularly well looked after by the Government in the past. The south does get a bigger slice of the cake, so this is quite a feather in our cap. It recognises the work we do here.

"The goodwill shown towards the department has a knock-on effect in generating staff enthusiasm, it makes people feel much more valued - the staff are bowled over by this."

The extra cash will enable the department to buy ultra-modern digital imaging X-ray and information technology equipment to help improve diagnosis and hospital security.

The hospital is building a new A and E department, due to open in two years' time next to the old one, and the latest equipment will be transferred to the modern facility.

But long before that it could ease pressure at the hospital during the Millennium period which, said Mr Sedgwick, "we are extremely concerned about."

Blackpool's Millennium celebrations could attract thousands of revellers, with inevitable casualties ending up at Victoria. If, said Mr Sedgwick, it also coincided with an influenza pandemic, as happened this year, the pressure on hospital staff and facilities could be stretched to the limit.

Another casualty-causing factor could be the Millennium Bug, which paralyses computers unable to recognise the date 2000. The hospital's own computers have been de-bugged, but Mr Sedgwick fears other organisations may not have been so well-prepared.

Staffing is an additional worry. Nurses receive time-and-a-half payments for public holidays, but doctors receive only time off in lieu, and so far the Victoria Hospital Trust is understood not to have offered doctors any extra incentive for Millennium duties.

Mr Sedgwick would only state: "The A and E department will have its usual complement of New Year staff."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.