consultant'' to review the way it provides psychiatric care on the Island, the executive director of the Bermuda Hospitals Board said last week.

Mrs. Sheila Manderson added that the evaluation was in keeping with the Board's recent policy of conducting "periodic reviews of various hospital facilities.'' "I am pleased to note that the response of the management and staff of St.

Brendan's to the proposed review has been extremely positive,'' the executive director said. "They seem to share the Board's feeling that an in-depth look at the current and future development of St. Brendan's will prove to be useful to everyone concerned.'' St. Brendan's -- the only psychiatric facility in Bermuda -- became embroiled late last year in a number of controversies over its community-based rehabilitation programme and the quality of patient care.

In August and September, two St. Brendan's out-patients were implicated in the violent assaults of two women.

One of the men accused was this week deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for the sexual assault.

And in the fall, a former employee at the hospital publicly criticised certain policies that he charged were secretive and neglectful.

Among the employee's biggest points of contention was the allegation that the hospital's administration would conduct investigations into problems and then sweep them under the rug.

Mrs. Manderson said this week that a steering committee "on which staff, patient families, the union, management and the administration are represented'' has been established to assist in the current review.