Waiting times for emergency department patients needing a bed have worsened again to nearly two days on average, prompting the Opposition to brand the situation a “crisis”.

For the fifth fortnight in a row, wait times for inpatient beds have increased, spiking at a longest average delay of 42.9 hours on July 7.

The overall average wait between July 3 and 16 was 26.6 hours, up on the 25 hours recorded in the previous fortnight.

The Bermuda Hospitals Boards has said a lack of resources in community care was causing bed-blocking.

The Government has failed to reply to requests from The Royal Gazette to comment on the situation.

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Michael Dunkley, the Shadow Minister of Health, told The Royal Gazette the situation was at crisis point.

He said: “This is now a crisis situation. This should not be happening in Bermuda — it’s just unacceptable.

“Where is the leadership from the Premier and the Minister of Health? We are just supposed to put up with this? No way.

“If people need help going back into the community then they should be given it.”

Mark Selley, head of the Bermuda Health Care Advocacy Group, insisted the Government must do more to ease the situation for patients.

He told The Royal Gazette: “This is absolute insanity. I do believe there is capacity for the hospital to utilise more beds in the general wing.”

A BHB spokeswoman said: “BHB continues to have patients who no longer need hospital care in about one out of three of its acute care beds and this again increased the time it took for patients waiting to go to an acute care ward to be moved.

“As part of BHB’s bed-boarding policy, additional ward nurses and aides are brought to the emergency department when there are increasing numbers of admitted patients waiting for an acute care bed.

“BHB specialist doctors, including hospitalists, geriatricians, surgeons, etc, also attend to review the admitted patients and help manage their care.

“This ensures patients are cared for with similar nursing staff to patient ratios as an acute care ward.

“However, to ensure there are available beds in the emergency department and for the comfort of the patient waiting to be admitted, the goal is always to move them as soon as an acute care unit bed is available.

“BHB is working with local agencies, nursing homes, families and government to try and facilitate a faster discharge process for these patients.

“BHB is also looking at all it can do internally. At the end of June, BHB introduced an activity and mobility programme developed by Johns Hopkins, to keep patients moving every day.

“Patients who are in hospital for extended periods are at risk of complications, from pressure injuries to mental and physical decline as they generally do not move very much.

“Moving every day with goals for each patient, reduces the risk of complications and, we hope, will help contribute to a reduction in length of stay for all patients.

“Wait times for triage, seeing a doctor and the length of stay in the department reduced in this two-week period.

“The average time it took from arrival to being triaged over the two weeks decreased by four minutes to 16 minutes compared with 20 minutes in the previous two weeks.

“The average time to see a doctor was 59 minutes compared to 68 minutes and the total time spent in emergency from arrival to discharge for all patients was three hours and 21 minutes compared to three hours and 35 minutes.”

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