Escalating medical costs and a growing bed shortage problem at Bermuda's only hospital will be tackled by the health care review team headed by independent Sen. Alf Oughton.

Health Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness gave the assurances in Parliament on Friday night in announcing sweeping hospital fee increases which he admitted were worrying.

There were between four and ten percent proposed increases in public and private ward bed costs at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

And Agape House hospice care fees were nearly doubled.

Mr. Edness explained that when the hospice was established in 1991, in the absence of any experience in operating such a facility, the cost of running it was grossly underestimated.

"Fortunately hospital costs have been contained in years gone by, but they are now reaching a point where there is cause for concern,'' Mr. Edness said.

"We wish to continue our system in which everyone has access to health care.

A major examination of escalating health care costs is needed to that effect.'' The 12-member task force currently reviewing health care will look into the issue, he said, adding the probe probably won't be completed until sometime next year.

Mr. Edness acknowledged hospital costs in Bermuda and overseas were rising at rates well in excess of inflation.

However, he believed the proposed increases were "acceptable'' when compared with the 13 percent projected increases in US hospital care in 1994.

Health care in the US was estimated to be 14 percent of the GNP, Mr. Edness pointed out. In Bermuda, it was estimated to be eight percent of the GNP, which is two percent more than the UK's, one percent less than Canada's and two percent more than Japan's.

Mr. Edness said he was aware of the problem of "people being in the hospital when they shouldn't be there''.

But it was not an easy problem to solve, he said.

It involved people who still required medical care, although not acute hospital care.

Noting the hospital's extended care unit was full, he said Government was attempting to provide additional facilities like Lefroy House for those in need of long term care.

In an effort to show how serious the problem was, Opposition MP and physician Dr. Ewart Brown told the House of Assembly that just two hours earlier he had tried to admit a patient to the hospital but was told there were no beds.

"There is a critical shortage of beds at the hospital,'' he charged. "Not just because it is full of sick people, but because it is full people who are not sick and should not be there.'' He claimed up to 30 of the hospital 200 beds were taken up by people not in need of acute care.

Mr. Edness said he was sure that if Dr. Brown's patient had required urgent care a bed would have been found.

However, the Minister promised he would look into the matter.

Mr. Edness said the proposed new rates would enable the hospital to generate enough revenue this year to cover projected expenses of $62 million, Mr.

Edness said.

They were also to provide the hospital with an operating surplus of about $1 million needed to undertake works on older wings and buy new equipment.

The hospital's expenses were up by 1.5 percent over the current year, he said.

This was due to a 10.5 percent projected increase in bed use by the elderly; a 44 percent increase in the cost of malpractice, property and other insurance; a 20 percent increase in costs associated with improving the hospital's water supply and biomedical waste incineration; and a six percent increase in the cost of overseas purchases.

Fiscal constraints on the hospital over the past few years had resulted in the depletion of its capital reserves, he said.

The Bermuda Hospitals Board (Hospital Fees) Amendment Regulations 1994 provide for: Agape House Hospice fees to be increased from $177 to $250 a day.

Public ward bed rates to be increased by 4.5 percent, from $457 to $478 a day.

Private and semi-private room rates to be increased by 10 percent, from $625 to $688 and $519 to $571.

The in-patient surcharge for non-residents to be increased from 50 percent to 75 percent.

The establishment of a new $9-an-hour out-patient speech therapy service.

New born infant and geriatric patient rates to be increased by 4.5 percent, from $177 to $185.

A 4.5 percent increase in outpatient rates.

They will be effective April 1, 1994 if Parliament approves them.

Shadow Health Minister Mr. Nelson Bascome noted hospital fees had been increased significantly every year in recent times.

It was time to "challenge'' them this year, he said.

He hoped Government would look into the problem of Bermudians continuing to go abroad in large numbers for health care.

Perhaps more specialists could be flown in to keep costs down, he suggested.

On the bed shortage, Mr. Bascome said, "If individuals are taking up spaces in the hospital when the don't need to be, it is costing us the taxpayer.''