Some elderly patients at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital are going hungry, missing out on meals because they are unable to sit up when the food is delivered to their bedside and having no one to help them reach the food.

And there was another shocking claim of poor care of seniors when Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson claimed that diabetic elderly people at the Pembroke Rest Home were pricked with a safety pins to have their blood tested because the proper medical equipment was not available.

Speaking at the House of Assembly, Mrs. Jackson urged Health Minister Patrice Minors to: "Get out of the office and do a little bit more on her own to see what is going on out there."

She said: "For the past two years many of our people have been suffering in hospital who are unable to feed themselves. I don't understand exactly why this is still happening. And I want to explain it yet again. People who are unable to actually sit up and feed themselves lie there and are not fed, the tray comes in and the tray goes out.

"And this can happen day in and day out unless there's a loved one there who will come in and feed them their breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"Now, I don't know whether our Minister for Health and Family Services is not hearing or whether she is paralysed in some way or unable to understand this. Nothing has been done. I did have Mr. Jonathan Brewin (Bermuda Hospitals Board Chairman) say that he would look into this for me. That was several weeks ago and I've heard nothing."

She told the House she visited the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute and been impressed by the facility, but recognised that was a problem with staff retention as there appeared to be at KEMH.

And expanding on KEMH, she said: "I just wish the same situation could be handled a little better at KEMH. I am still concerned about how they are treating people as far as not feeding them and the nursing staff turnover."

Mrs Jackson also touched upon the level of wages being paid to rest home workers as one possible reason why it was hard to get trained and skilled staff.

But it was the Pembroke Rest Home that most perplexed Mrs. Jackson, she said: "I'm going to tell you what was going on in that home. There were diabetics being struck with a bare needle to be blood tested because there was not a pinlet, which is what one normally uses and does not cause the pain that a bare pin stuck in your finger does.

"There were people there who needed nursing with bed sores, terrible bed sores. She (Mrs. Minors) knew this and yet nothing was done about this for as far as I know for a good 10 days later. This is not good enough."

Health Minister Mrs. Minors responded: "There was a visit made in November. The Department of Health monitors all the rest homes including Pembroke Rest Home on a continuous basis. She says there were deficiencies she said we did not identify them. In the response it set out exactly what was found there was no incidence of bad treatment to the clients."

Shadow Minister for Education Neville Darrell confirmed what Mrs. Jackson had claimed regarding the lack of diabetic equipment a the rest home. He said: "The situation that Mrs. Jackson records is in fact so, the matter regarding individuals being pricked with a safety pin was such that I myself donated my diabetic testing kit to that facility to assist them during that time."