Receiving Canadian accreditation and installing Bermuda's first MRI machine are top of the list of achievements in the Bermuda Hospitals Board Annual Report 2002-2003.

Tabled in the Senate on Monday, the Annual Report also highlighted many challenges the hospitals still face, such as resolving the laundry problem and decreasing the cost of health insurance for hospital employees.

But the biggest challenge of all remained the funding of capital projects and the improvement to the current physical structure.

The Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust was formed in March as a separate entity from the BHB in order to formalise the hospitals' charitable relationship with the community, with the vision of a new hospital within 15 years.

The report showed the hospitals have assets of nearly $115 million.

"High on the list of accomplishments is the three-year Accreditation with Report granted to us by the Canadian Council for Health Services Administration (CCHSA), which evaluated the hospitals according to standards of excellence as defined by leading healthcare providers," the report stated.

The radiology department has made huge strides with the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, while the quality and risk department addressed many concerns such as infection control policies.

But the report continues: "The laundry department continued to present a challenge for the Board throughout the year due to the constant breakdown of old equipment. Various proposals are under consideration for this area."

The Southampton Princess had to take over doing the hospital's laundry in March of 2004 after the equipment finally broke down completely.

And the BHB remained concerned about the cost of health insurance for hospital employees.

A "tremendous" increase in the number of claims resulted in a projected 32 percent increase in the cost of premiums, and the BHB implemented several staff education programmes in hopes of reducing that cost.