Bermuda poses a serious threat to technological advancements at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Concern has emerged within the group that their waning membership will lead to less money being raised and consequently less that can be turned over to buy equipment and help with other hospital upgrading.

The drastic shortage of Pink Ladies has resulted in shorter opening hours and several unplanned closures in the hospital cafeteria.

Head of the Hospitals Auxiliary, Deborah Rice, said she believed it had become more fashionable for people to serve charities such as the National Gallery and the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

"We've had to close the cafeteria on several occasions because we simply didn't have enough staff to run it,'' said hospital director of volunteers, Debra Bird.

"On Monday we only had three people and we need a minimum of seven, but I helped out and we kept it open,'' she added. "I try never to close it. We ask customers to bear with us, inform them that we are short staffed and then just do our best.

"It takes 21 people a day to run just the cafeteria. Because we are not professionals it takes more of us to man the operation and when you consider that the age of one of our volunteers is 70, it is expected that we will not be moving very fast.'' Ms Bird noted that the Hospitals Auxiliary received a wish list from the hospital every year and based on the list decided where best to inject the money raised.

"The Auxiliary has contributed funding for a variety of hospital projects including ultra-scan machines, help with the CAT scan, the neo-natal unit, the list goes on and on,'' said Ms Bird.

"Most recently the Auxiliary gave $266,000 to assist the hospital in becoming Y2K compliant. The money helped with the purchase of new computers and upgrading.''