A MULTI-million-dollar refurbishment to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital will see a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit, and a new diagnostic imaging area added to the 40-year-old facility.

The $4 million renovation to the ICU began Monday, while plans for the diagnostic imaging area are still in development.

"This is all part of our strategic plan to bring a high quality medical service to Bermuda residents," said Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) CEO Joan Dillas-Wright. "The care and comfort of patients will continue to be a priority during the renovations."

In an interview with this newspaper last April, BHB chairman Jonathan Brewin said the Paget hospital was beginning to show its age, and required a fix somewhere in the region of $30 million to bring it up to scratch.

"I'd love to be able to bring the physical infrastructure of the hospital to the standard it needs to be," he said at the time. "There is a genuine need for improvement and the Bermuda climate does give buildings a hammering.

"We are aiming to set up something called the Health Care Trust, preferably within two to three months, and its primary purpose will be to support the hospital in its refurbishment programmes. If we got everything on our wish list, it would cost in the region of $25 to $30 million."

Yesterday, however, a spokesperson said the refurbishment was being underwritten by the BHB but that the Trust would be set up in the near future.

Projected for occupation in October, the new ICU is planned to benefit both patients and medical staff and is based on established American and Canadian standards to ensure the highest quality of care.

"Renovations will bring the facility up to date and ensure that we have the standard equipment found in modern ICUs," explained George Melling, director of facilities management at KEMH. "The new unit will accommodate nine patients to meet our clinical needs.

"A number of our managers and nurses went overseas to the United States and Canada during the planning process to look at what other hospitals have in their intensive care units. Their insight and feedback were incorporated in the design process."

A temporary ICU is now situated in the hospital's emergency care area and will remain in that location until the new unit is ready.

Plans for the diagnostic imaging area are set to go out to tender for construction and engineering in March. A larger undertaking than the ICU, renovation will comprise two phases and should be completed within 12 months.