While bed shortages continue to affect the operation of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, the hospitals board chief executive said a “suite of solutions” was required to solve a difficult issue.

However, Scott Pearman told Hamilton Rotary Club that the suggestion of penalties for “bed blocking” at KEMH would require a clear rationale before such a move could materialise.

Mr Pearman said that the Bermuda Hospitals Board had rapidly amended its Covid-19 bed-surge plans to address recent capacity issues at KEMH.

“This has enabled us to increase ward capacity marginally but safely, and enables us to move acutely ill patients from the emergency departments to wards in a timely basis,” he said.

He added that some patients had elected to discharge themselves instead of moving into the double occupancy rooms.

At present, there are sufficient beds at the Acute Care Wing of KEMH for people in need.

“If we had some place to discharge the 40-odd medically fit-for-discharge patients from the hospital, we would have beds to spare for acute care patients,” he said.

“That will mean no wait for beds in the Emergency Department.”

He added: “The reality of hospital care — and this is felt worldwide — is that there are patients who do not need to be in hospital any longer but who have complex needs.

“And still they may need a different type of care that can’t be easily arranged.

“They might need a nursing home placement, they might need adjustments to their homes and, of course, finances could be an issue.

“Every patient has a different story.”

Mr Pearman said the BHB planned for overcrowded situations but its options for transitional patient placements had been reduced by the October 2014 impact of Hurricane Gonzalo, which badly damaged the old Continuing Care Unit.

The CCU was eventually demolished and the General Wing units had to house its long-term care patients.

Mr Pearman told the gathering that, during a visit to the hospital’s Emergency Department last week, a senior doctor reported that the “crisis response” from staff to the recent patient surge had made a meaningful difference.

This week, the Bermuda Healthcare Advocacy Group criticised Kim Wilson, the Minister of Health, who recently suggested to Bermuda Broadcasting that bed blocking could incur penalties in cases of patients declared medically fit for discharge.

The group said the BHB had neither the authority nor mandate to embark on such a move.

Mr Pearman said he was confident that Ms Wilson spoke on the condition that “discreet rationale” would be undertaken before penalties could be applied for bed blocking.

The Government was asked to comment on BHAG’s claim.

Speaking on other initiatives at the hospital, Mr Pearman said the BHB had used artificial intelligence to augment clinical operations.

He said that over the past two years, BHB had applied rapid AI to support its radiographers.

The human eye can only interpret so much information,” he added.

AI can swiftly analyse thousands of CT and MRI images and highlight areas of concern for the radiographers to examine.

He added: “We will continue to incorporate AI into our new suite of radiology equipment.”