Bermuda’s hospital overcrowding crisis is being made worse by the island’s housing shortage, Marico Thomas, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, has warned.

“This is not a medical issue. It’s a housing issue,” Mr Thomas said, calling for urgent action.

He explained that patients who were medically ready to go home were stuck in hospital beds because they had nowhere else to go. “Homes don't exist, the hospital becomes housing,” he said.

However, the problem will not improve unless the Government subsidises the creation of accommodation for people. “There's no money in affordable housing,” he said.

The Royal Gazette reported that, at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in March, about 40 patients well enough to be discharged were occupying entire wards that should be used for other medical care.

Mr Thomas emphasised the strain this causes: “Surgery is delayed until they actually have some room to set aside for you to recover.”

The impact goes beyond bed shortages. Delays in care mean some patients must seek treatment overseas, driving up healthcare premiums and costs for everyone, Mr Thomas said.

Meanwhile, many discharged patients face unacceptable living conditions. "There are people with no running water. There are people with no drinkable water. There are people with no flushing toilet," he explained.

Reports show that at least one patient recently waited more than nine months to be discharged due to a lack of available housing and care options.

Thomas also pointed out the financial waste involved in using expensive hospital infrastructure for housing needs: "When you build a hospital, it's not $600 a square foot. You've got oxygen in the walls. You've got specialised cleaning. You've got all this technology. [The cost is] $2,000-$3,000 a square foot,“ he said.

Organisations such as Age Concern have urged the Government to consider repurposing underused buildings into senior housing and to incentivise careers in geriatric care to meet the growing demand, the Gazette reported.

However, he concluded that the root of the problem was economic. “There's no money in healthcare. If you go into this, I did, you lose money. I did. I'm not happy right now but the point really is that it has to be subsidised or something else has to happen.”