The wife of a 76-year-old senior who was forced to wait more than two days for an inpatient bed has branded King Edward VII Memorial Hospital’s handling of her official complaint about his treatment as “laughable”.

The woman, who does not want to be named to protect the couple’s privacy, described the Bermuda Hospitals Board’s attitude as “shabby”, saying she felt officials hoped that if they ignored the complaint her family would give up.

Her comments came after the hospital admitted that its performance was “not good enough” as it took two weeks to acknowledge the letter of complaint — and did so only after being prompted by The Royal Gazette.

The woman said: “It’s just laughable. They brushed us off and hoped that we wouldn’t come back if they ignored us.

“Well, we are coming back, because if nobody does anything then nothing will change.

“Where is the empathy? They asked us to make a complaint and then treat us like this? It is shabby.”

The senior, who has had Parkinson’s disease for 26 years, was taken to the emergency department with pneumonia and had to wait 53 hours for a hospital bed.

His wife said a friend had hand-delivered the written letter of complaint to the hospital on May 29, but two weeks later she had heard nothing back.

After being alerted to the situation by The Royal Gazette, the BHB apologised and said that it will change its procedures and has promised to conclude the full investigation into the incident by the end of the month.

Michael Richmond, the BHB chief executive and president, said: “I am very sorry that the response to the patient’s family was late.

“We do monitor the response times to complaints each month as a key performance indicator at BHB and this is reported quarterly to the board.

“It is an issue I very much want to ensure is addressed as managing complaints are part of our accountability to the community.

“Most complaints come by phone, via e-mail or are mailed directly to an individual, and so this has highlighted the need to have an equally streamlined process for letters handed into our reception desk.

“It certainly was not good enough this time. With regard to the complaint itself, an investigation has been initiated and we will be responding in full to the family later this month.”

In her letter of complaint to the BHB, the woman said that some staff did “did not care” about her husband.

The woman said that she considered her comments to be “constructive criticism” necessary to improve the hospital’s emergency department.

The Royal Gazette revealed recently that on one day last month people admitted to the emergency department had to wait 37 hours on average for a bed.

The BHB warned in March that it will struggle to maintain its facilities or to pay a basic cost-of-living increase to its staff because government funding is not keeping up with medical inflation.