The Opposition has called for "clarification and reform" to a new system of patient care at the hospital after concerns were raised in the media.

The Mid-Ocean News reported last week that local doctors have called for a review of the Hospitalist Programme.

A team of "hospitalists" – specialists trained to care for in-patients – were brought employed in July to free up general practitioners who might otherwise have had to make hospital visits to check on patients.

King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's Chief of Staff, Dr. Donald Thomas III, said of the new system earlier this year: "Essentially, this programme assigns a small team of on-site specialist physicians to a patient when they are admitted into the hospital.

"Patients will see one of their assigned team every day to discuss their care, or more frequently if an urgent issue comes up that needs attention. Currently, GPs look after their own patients, if they are admitted to hospital.

"The benefit of the Hospitalist Programme for GPs is that they can feel assured their patients are receiving quality specialist level care at the hospital while they are extremely busy in their offices with their community patients.

"The benefit to patients is that they will see their care team every day and have a dedicated, on-site specialist physician while in hospital."

The new system was drawn up after consultation with GPs.

However, the Mid-Ocean news reported that a group of Bermudian GPs are in the process of appealing to the Bermuda Hospitals Board for access to junior hospital staff, who they claim are providing them with no support.

Instead, these junior officers have been ordered to look after only those patients who have relinquished their own GP in favour of a hospital-approved doctor, it was reported.

The paper also printed a letter it obtained from the BHB to Island GPs stating that, should a doctor choose to care for his or her own patient at the hospital, "house staff will not be taking care of the patient unless there is an emergency consult".

The unsigned letter, faxed en masse, reportedly included a clause stating that even if a critically ill patient being cared for by his or her GP gets into "an extremis situation" at the hospital, the patient "will not be automatically transferred to the Hospitalist service, unless that is requested".

The newspaper said local GPs now claim the Hospitalist Programme is not living up to its initial promise: that each patient would be seen by a house doctor daily.

Giving her views on the matter yesterday, Shadow Minister of Health Louise Jackson said: "There may be merit in the new hospitalist system at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, but recent concerns expressed by doctors and patients indicate the system so far puts administrative considerations ahead of patient care.

"There is clearly a disconnect on this matter between General Practitioners (GPs) and the hospitalist programme and it is incumbent on hospital authorities to work it out in favour of patients.

"The United Bermuda Party supports in principle the hospitalist system because of its potential to improve patient care. But we believe it is essential that the programme proceed on a more cooperative basis.

"Under the new system, people being admitted to the hospital are given a choice of care by either their GP or a hospitalist, who by training is a specialist in in-patient care.

"If they choose their GP, they will not be treated until their GP arrives on the scene, even if junior doctors are available.

"This was not the case prior to the introduction of the hospitalist system when junior doctors attended to patients. It has been reported that GPs no longer get the full support of hospital staff.

"This all-or-nothing choice faced by patients is unacceptable. It even suggests that the Hippocratic Oath underlying the duties and obligations of physicians can be subordinated by this administrative divide."