AXIS Capital has donated $1 million to the Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust (BHCT), bringing the group’s funds to $31 million.

The new acute care wing at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital will require a $40 million payout to contractors Paget Health Services upon its completion.

The “Why it Matters” campaign by the BHCT has been raising money since April 2011, and is now in what executive director Ralph Richardson called “the home stretch”.

AXIS chief executive officer Albert Benchimol said the company was committed to helping deliver “deliver enhanced and affordable healthcare” to the community.

Thanking the company, BHCT chairman Philip Butterfield said the donation put the campaign “one step closer to achieving our goal of providing a world class standard of excellent healthcare through modernised facilities”.