News this week of dialysis services being diverted from the hospital to the private sector is “concerning”, the One Bermuda Alliance said.

It came as the Bermuda Hospitals Board announced that dialysis was expected to resume at the hospital from today.

Earlier Michael Dunkley, the Shadow Minister of Health, said the Opposition hoped that problem was isolated and would be “rectified expeditiously”.

The BHB announced that its dialysis unit had paused service while an undisclosed anomaly found in water tests was checked again.

The closure was described as brief to allow samples to be sent overseas for testing, with “community dialysis service providers” to be used in the interim.

Mr Dunkley said the hospital needed to be “diligent” on the matter and ensure that “there is no change in the service as provided by the hospital and there is no charge outside of any usual charges”.

“It is also critical that the outside hospital service providers can cope with the demand and times expected by patients.

“As a result of being contacted by concerned staff, I reached out to the BHB and have been assured that the situation would be short-lived and that the outside service providers have been offering similar services.”

He added: “I intend to keep abreast of this matter.”

The BHB announced yesterday that the re-test of the water for the dialysis unit had come back as normal.

Staff who accompanied patients to dialyse them in the community were thanked, as were the community dialysis providers who “worked with us to provide treatments”.

“All our dialysis patients had their necessary dialysis treatments, thanks to this collaboration and teamwork.

“We apologise to our dialysis patients for any inconvenience and thank them for their understanding. Their safety is always our primary concern.”

The dialysis team was said to be contacting patients to confirm their usual treatment times.