Bermuda has a first rate hospital which the community should be proud of, a visiting hospital executive has said.

Yvonne Young Reid, chief executive officer of Spanish Town Hospital in Jamaica, came to the island with a team of officials to view the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's operation.

"I think the physical infrastructure is conducive to total quality improvement,'' she said of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. "I personally believe that your environment can enhance worker participation and worker appreciation.'' Mrs. Young Reid said that infrastructure has been a problem in Jamaica for historical reasons and will be one of several areas that will be looked at on her return home.

Mrs. Young Reid joined Dr. Garth Alexander, senior medical officer at the Spanish Town Hospital, Verlie James chief executive officer at Sav-La-Mar Hospital, and Joseph Dewdney an administrator with the Kingston Public Hospital, for the trip to Bermuda.

They arrived on Monday night and were due to leave yesterday.

Dr. Alexander said the purpose of the trip was to observe how King Edward VII Memorial Hospital performed and to see how the visitors could take and use some of its practices in their respective hospitals.

"There are a lot of things that we would like to see improved,'' he said.

"We would like to see more involvement of the workers as well as a programme that improves the quality of care of our patients.

"We have been impressed by (the hospital's) team approach, problem solving abilities and methods of motivating staff.'' Dr. Alexander said a key difficulty would be for them to apply what they have learned in Bermuda to Jamaica, given the lack of finances that plague the country's hospitals.

But he said computerisation of record keeping was an absolutely key ingredient in the process because it created a good information base to work from.

"Our main limitation is funding our resource base,'' he said. "We have the manpower and expertise available.'' Mr. James said worker participation and motivation was a key indicator of staff productivity.

"One of the advantages (Bermuda) has over us is that there are 23 hospitals in Jamaica and with our limited resources spread out in this way, it is possible that it is being spread too thinly.

"In Bermuda you have been able to concentrate your resources and make the best possible use of them.

"There is a lot that we have learned from Bermuda which we will tailor to suit our situation.

"Customer satisfaction is our ultimate goal,'' he said. "We are customer driven and our end product is the satisfied customer.'' VISITING EXECUTIVES -- Yvonne Young Reid, chief executive officer of Spanish Town Hospital in Jamaica, Verlie James, chief executive officer, at Sav-La-Mar hospital and Joseph Dewdney, an administrator at Kingston Public Hospital, were on the Island this week to observe the workings of the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. They returned to Jamaica yesterday afternoon.