Long-term care hospital patients are not being discharged because social care cannot keep up with demand, according to the outgoing chief executive and president of the Bermuda Hospitals Board.

Recently it emerged that at one point 27 people in the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital — the equivalent of one ward — no longer needed hospital care but could not be discharged because they had nowhere to go.

Asked about the issue, Michael Richmond, who is leaving the BHB to take up a new post in Britain, said a significant number of patients fell into the category of long-term care.

“If there were back-up services and if it was financially viable, I think that there would be an alternative pathway for some of these patients. They are patients and they have needs.

“I think we should never reduce them to being statistics. I think they are a part of families in Bermuda or dependents in Bermuda and they deserve all dignity and respect in their hour of need.

“I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus here and make any criticism but the health and social care are collaborators in this area of post-hospital care.

“I think it’s fair to say that the social care component in Bermuda struggles to keep up with demand for whatever reason. Healthcare and social care needs to be hand-in-hand.

“I think sometimes it feels like in the healthcare sector, we’re holding hands with a ghost.

“It’s not able to keep up with the demand. I know that they try jolly hard, and I know they are doing their best, but in terms of the ability to keep a flow of patients going through the hospital, it can be challenging.”

He conceded that the hospital itself could do better and said it had just started an in-depth review of the flow of patients.

“I think it’s showing some areas for us to improve and if we can do our bit and the outside support services can do their bit, I am hopeful that progress can be made.”

On possible solutions, Dr Richmond added: “Necessity is the mother of invention and there’s always an evolution. Sometimes it’s not as fast as you would like.

“I think there would be great benefit from the great and the good and the wise and the wealthy in Bermuda to come around the table and to say: ‘This is our problem, what is our solution?’

“It’s not a cut and paste from somewhere else. It’s: ‘How does Bermuda wish to look after the room?’ There’s a solution but somebody has to grasp the nettle and stop ignoring it.”

He suggested that one solution might be some form of government and private arrangement whereby a service is funded but not necessarily at a profit, but as a no-deficit business.

“There's a lot of good people, I believe, that could play into this. But to reduce the medicalisation, when a patient is living in a hospital as opposed to being treated in a hospital, I think has to be a target.”

• For the full interview, listen to the audio file