Senators took a look at the near $100 million budget allocation for the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute and debated the need to reassure the public with plans for the rebuilding of both hospitals before they begin to suffer expected structural and equipment failures sometime around 2012.

This year the budget for the two hospitals has been stepped up 11 percent to $97.5 million.

Senator Raymond Tannock said: ?Given our relatively isolated geographic location, the Bermuda community needs a range of services far broader than would commonly be expected of hospitals serving a similar population base.?

He said the Bermuda Hospitals Board ?continues to be challenged in meeting a minimum of six percent net return, which is recommended for hospitals by the American Hospitals? Association to meet their strategic goals, including equipment replacement and facilities management and replacement?.

On the positive side the two hospitals have received three-year accreditation from the Canadian Council on Health Services. An Estate Master Plan for the replacing of the two facilities, which are expected to begin to suffer ?failure point? in some areas by 2012, is now at Ministerial level.

A new all-weather shelter for housing the ambulance fleet is also to be constructed this year, and a new state-of-the-art morgue was opened in February, said Sen. Tannock.

He mentioned initiatives designed to encourage staff recruitment and retention, including a number of incentive and bonus schemes and a new salary structure for nurses. Ed Ball, general secretary of the Bermuda Public Services Union, has informed that these initiatives, which were also spoken about by Health Minister Patrice Minors in the Budget debate in the House of Assembly last week, are still at the negotiating stage with the BHB.

He spoke of a new Chargemaster cost accounting application project that should be implemented by April 2007, and added: ?A peer review program for all physicians has been started to ensure that all doctors who work at the BHB meet comparable general standards set in North America. This will establish BHB as a centre of medical excellence.?

The hospitals? board has also introduced telemedicine allowing medics on the Island to connect with health care providers around the world to share information and gain immediate access to leading specialists.

The Opposition?s reply focused on the construction of a new hospital, which is expected to start in five or six years and is projected to cost somewhere in the region of $500 million.

Sen. E.T. (Bob) Richards asked the Government to provide the public with more concrete information about plans for a new hospital.

?It?s been unofficially concluded that it is going to be on Point Finger Road,? Sen. Richards said. ?It might not be the easiest location but it is the most sensible. The scale and complexity of the project I can only guess because we haven?t seen plans from the Government. What we have seen is many attempts to put Band Aids on the hospital.?

He said Government needed to release detailed, clear plans that will provide the public with confidence in the project and avoid confusion and doubt.

Without further disclosure people might not support the Government?s efforts, he said, adding that he does not want to see the new hospital become a controversial topic like the new Berkeley. ?This will be the most complex thing ever undertaken by the Bermudian people,? he said. ?It is going to be built by and paid for by us. The Government needs to be more forthcoming on how it will be paid for.?