which receives unfavourable publicity, there is bound to be general public disquiet about our only major medical facility. The public has a right to express its concern just as it has a right to be informed about what goes on in its only medical facility. Any untoward incident at the King Edward rushes around Bermuda on everyone's lips and while there is usually only one incident at any one time, in recent months there have been two public hearings almost simultaneously, into the deaths of Wendy Wilkinson and Justin Fisher. The King Edward's reputation has seldom been so low. Indeed, it seems to us that almost everyone has a King Edward horror story, be the stories truth or fiction. Many of these are spread by the King Edward's own staff.

It is, of course, human nature to repeat the horror stories and take very little notice of the large number of success stories. There are a large number of success stories which the public seldom hears about. Many visitors write letters to this newspaper saying they were better treated at the King Edward than they would have expected to be treated at home. You never hear anyone say, "Guess what a success the King Edward has had,'' in the same way you hear them say, "The King Edward has done it again!'' It is also fair to say that quite often the King Edward Hospital gets blamed for the actions of individuals which have nothing to do with the administration of the hospital itself. Generally, and it is not fair to hospital administrators, anything which takes place on the premises of the King Edward is automatically blamed on "the hospital''.

The truth about the King Edward seems to be somewhere between the horror stories and the high calibre hospital that a small but sophisticated country would like to have. The King Edward is a good, small general hospital.

Problems and criticisms often arise because the public expects more of the King Edward than it has reason to ask of either the hospital or its general staff.

Sometimes these expectations arise because the hospital and its staff imply that the King Edward can successfully and efficiently supply more than, in truth, it can. Sometimes this implication comes about because of a reluctance to refer patients to specialists or to major medical centres. Sometimes it comes about because of wishful thinking.

The reality is that the King Edward receives a great deal of public support, much of it from the same people who complain. It has a large and dedicated volunteer organisation and it has just received huge public contributions to its successful fund raising Care Campaign.

The fact is that any hospital is a public servant and public servants always take knocks from the public. There are people who say that because the King Edward is the only hospital in Bermuda, it should be above criticism in order to preserve public confidence. Nothing would wreck the hospital faster.

The King Edward is not sacrosanct and it must not be above criticism. Indeed, because it is the only hospital and because it deals in human life, the hospital should be subjected to closer scrutiny than any other organisation in Bermuda. This newspaper is very concerned that there should be an attitude at the King Edward which leads to correcting faults rather than making excuses.

The King Edward must be answerable to the public it serves and it should not be surrounded in the kind of mystery the medical profession enjoys and often creates to delude the public. The King Edward is not sacred ground nor are its practitioners infallible beings never to be questioned. Nothing and no-one is perfect or above reproach or above criticism.

Indeed, it is criticism which may one day lead to the King Edward being the hospital this sophisticated country would like to have.