THE Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) yesterday revealed plans to overhaul staff sleeping arrangements at KEMH ¿ just weeks after the Mid-Ocean News reported that rotation doctors were being forced to sleep on lilos on the floor due to a lack of adequate space.

This plan will be carried out immediately, separate to the $315-million, five-year upgrade announced at a press conference this week.

A BHB spokesperson explained that the unacceptable current conditions for doctors demanded immediate action.

"The arrangements for physicians on rotation could not wait for new facilities," she said.

"We are pleased to note that we now have two rooms for them in our on-site staff residence, which we are currently preparing for their use."

Hospital CEO David Hill admitted that doctors were sleeping on blow-up air mattresses rather than beds or cots last month after Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson blasted KEMH for "misplaced priorities".

Mrs. Jackson condemned the hospital for renovating its administrative floor while operating "substandard" wards.

At the time, Mr. Hill defended the fifth-floor renovations as a necessary first step in the hospital's upgrade plans, but agreed that the provision of lilos or air mattresses instead of beds was "inadequaute for [KEMH's] physicians".

This week, BHB announced a full overhaul that will see its acute care facilities upgraded according to recommendations laid out in a report by famed healthcare programme Johns Hopkins Medicine International.

The plans include a three-storey ambulatory care centre, a six-storey patient tower with 90 private beds, and a utility plant for laundry and other operations.

Both Health Minister Nelson Bascombe and Mrs. Jackson have publicly praised the Johns Hopkins report and the BHB's resulting plans to overhaul its facilities.

The BHB updated the Mid-Ocean News on its accreditation status, which is currently pending approval by Accreditation Canada, formerly the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation.

The hospital has until December 24 to meet 111 ¿ or nine per cent ¿ of Accreditation Canada's list of 1,555 standards.

"We are currently on target to provide evidence of meeting all required standards to Accreditation Canada by the deadline, Wednesday 24 December," said BHB's spokesperson.

"We look forward to updating the community when we hear back from Accreditation Canada on our final result, which should be some time in the New Year."