Airedale Hospital is to spend £218,000 updating its old-fashioned computer infrastructure which is "creaking at the seams".

The move has been sanctioned by health chiefs to redress a lack of investment that has left the hospital with an out of date IT system.

Staff say they are also finding it increasingly difficult to download important on-line information from the government.

Director of Finance Janet Crouch said: "The system is creaking at the seams and the e-mail system has been completely blocked up over the last couple of weeks and has reached the stage where we can't log onto the Internet or intranet.

"We also have the situation across the trust where some secretaries are working on modern machines whilst some are working on old PC's and with out of date software.

"This has implications for training, maintenance and support. We need to totally upgrade the network and servers."

"These are fairly modest aspirations at the moment, and I really do think we can't wait any longer."

Director of Nursing and Quality Sue Franks added that a modern system is essential as more and more important documents from the NHS are being posted on the internet rather than through the mail.

The improvements are being funded through the trust's capital investment plan and have been split into four categories.

The largest portion of £100,000 will go towards replacing and upgrading PC's and software programmes in offices throughout the hospital.

This will represent the first step of £400,000 package planned over the next three years.

Another £78,000 will be spent on replacing IT equipment in the outpatients department, with £30,000 to upgrade the equipment supporting the data network, which in some cases is 10-years-old.

A further £10,000 will pay for an upgrade to the hospital's Novell servers.

Members of the trust board have also agreed to an injection of £70,000 for Airedale's Sterile Service Department (SSD)which provides a sterilising service to the whole trust and has a key role in disinfecting and sterilising theatre equipment and supplies.

The cash will be spent on two cabinet washers to replace existing equipment that has failed.

Theatre equipment from Airedale is currently being sent to St Luke's Hospital in Bradford for washing and disinfecting.

Although the hospital says more than £500,000 is required to bring the department technically up to date, it believes the £70,000 will provide a satisfactory stopgap.