A new regime that ensures all patients at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital patients are fed has been praised by Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson following a tour of the hospital.

It was the United Bermuda Party MP who has been most vocal in raising concerns that some senior and incapacitated patients appeared to be missing out on food because they were not being given assistance to eat from the trays of food that were brought to their bedsides.

The hospital has recently improved its procedures and guidelines and invited Mrs. Jackson to tour the hospital to see for herself, and also to view other areas that have attracted criticism, such as the use of a refrigerated unit used as a temporary morgue while a new facility was constructed.

?The hospital has acknowledged the concerns. The biggest issue was the right to be fed and the programme they have put in place has done an excellent job of addressing the problem,? said Mrs. Jackson, following her tour of the KEMH.

?There will be special people who will be allocated to feed the patients and they will be trained how to feed people too disabled to feed themselves. The food will be given to them first so that it is hot.?

Another issue which the MP raised at the end of last year concerned the cleaning regimes at the hospital. Mrs. Jackson added: ?I?m very happy to hear that the hospital is addressing some of those housekeeping problems.

?I was also thrilled to see the new morgue and the cardiac diagnostic unit and the intensive care unit, which has marked its first anniversary and is state-of-art.? Mrs. Jackson said there were still a few concerns on the wards, but she hoped that they would be addressed in the same manner as those she had previously raised.