THE intensive care unit at York District Hospital has saved countless lives. Highly trained and dedicated staff use the most advanced medical techniques to nurse dangerously ill patients back to health.

Yet this level of care creates its own problems. The relentless march of medical progress has brought with it a new generation of health hardware: ventilators, defibrillators, heart monitors. Each one performs a vital, life-sustaining task. Each one has to be plugged into both patient and power supply.

Our reliance on such machinery was previously highlighted two years ago, when the hospital's theatres and intensive care unit were hit by power failures. Then, staff had to take emergency measures, including giving manual ventilation to patients.

That resulted in a five-year, £1 million action plan to overhaul the hospital's electrical system.

Now we have another example of how a hospital which only recently celebrated its 25th birthday is struggling to cope with the demands of modern medicine.

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating York widow Dorothy Lynch's complaint about hazards in intensive care. A nurse, tending Mrs Lynch's husband, tripped over a cable, upending his drips and unplugging a life support machine. Fortunately, it was not in use at the time.

Hospital managers admit the number of cables is a problem. But to suspend the wires above the ceiling would cost £10,000 per bed, a cost which would eat into already stretched resources.

It must be possible to make the unit safer without breaking the bank. The combined imaginations of hospital chiefs and maintenance staff should be able to come up with something. Mention has already been made of using Velcro loops to tidy the wiring away.

With a little creative thinking, perhaps a solution can be found that will protect staff and patients - at least until wireless technology is developed.

Updated: 10:35 Tuesday, October 16, 2001