More than $3 million was paid to Bermuda Hospitals Board over 17 months to offset costs incurred by new diagnostic imaging fees, Parliament heard on Monday.

Kim Wilson, the Minister of Health, said that from June 1, 2017 to October 31, 2018 that $3.167 million had gone as compensation to BHB.

The fee cuts were applied to MRI and CT scanning services in 2017, with payments subsequently made to private providers as well as the hospital.

Ms Wilson told the House of Assembly that in the financial year 2017-18 a $780,000 grant was paid to the Brown-Darrell Clinic — a unit in Smith’s owned by former premier Ewart Brown — in relation to diagnostic imaging.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin of the One Bermuda Alliance said that BHB had also adjusted its operating room fees to help the hospital recover some of the revenue lost to the new fees regime.