By Washington correspondent Paul Reynolds

President Clinton has proposed a plan to try to cut down the number of errors in US hospitals, which are said to cause tens of thousands of deaths a year.

He wants hospitals to put better systems in place to prevent errors, and to report them when they occur.

A recent report estimated that as many as 98,000 people might be dying each year because of hospital errors ranging from mistakes in surgery to mix-ups over drugs.

President Clinton's plan aims to halve the number of these deaths in five years.

He has ordered all federally controlled or assisted hospitals to take action immediately to improve their systems - even down to typing prescriptions to avoid errors over handwriting.

Anonymous reporting

He also wants Congress to legislate for a system of reporting errors - to be done anonymously, to encourage compliance and avoid lawsuits.

The president said: "Taken together, these actions represent the most significant effort our nation has ever made to reduce medical errors.

"It's a balanced, common-sense approach based on prevention, not punishment."

Some states already have such reporting procedures in place, and opponents of the idea say that it has not led to decreases in medical mistakes.

But Senator Edward Kennedy, a leading health reform activist, has said Congress would probably legislate on the issue this year.