Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) Chairman Jonathan Brewin will leave King Edward VII Memorial Hospital before a new location for it could be found.

Mr. Brewin will be replaced in January by BHB Deputy Chairman ? and former Accountant General ? Anthony Richardson.

Health and Family Services Minister Patrice Minors confirmed Mr. Brewin had reached the end of his maximum three year service as Chairman.

?After three years I can confirm that Mr. Brewin will be stepping down in the New Year,? Mrs. Minors said. ?The Chairman can only serve a three-year term which will conclude in the New Year.?

When contacted last night, Mr. Brewin was reluctant to go into any details until he informed the 1500 staff of KEMH and the Mid Atlantic Wellness Centre of his departure.

?I will issue a press release tomorrow when I inform the staff at the hospital,? Mr. Brewin said.

He said he had been BHB Chairman since about January 2003.

In November 2003, Mr. Brewin spearheaded an Estates Master Plan, the controversial results of which were released in June, 2005 ? that KEMH which will come to the end of its life at the end of 2012.

The Plan also included plans to rebuild KEMH at one of three sites ? the Botanical Gardens, the Arboretum or at the current location. The plans to develop green park land caused as outcry from open space campaigners, who lobbied to rebuild at the existing site.

One week after the announcement, BHB?s architectural consultant Ron McIntyre said if the preservation of open space was deemed more important than healthcare, then the current KEMH site was an option.

However, Mr. McIntyre also said there would be many logistical difficulties with building a brand new hospital around 30 feet from the old one.

The cost would also be higher and it would not be finished until several years after the critical deadline, he said.

Neither Mr. Richardson nor BHB CEO Joan Dillas-Wright was not available yesterday.