Dear Sir,

While the people and the Government have been spending time debating the Caricom full membership issue over the past few months, something else just happened that, for me, put everything into crystal clear perspective.

This latest event dropped the Caricom discussion like a stone, putting it way down on the political priority list for the average Bermudian (if it even was a priority in the first place). Something else just replaced it, with the massive impact akin to a resurfacing nuclear submarine.

Last week, we were all told that our $1 billion-plus acute care wing (ACW) hospital facility, which opened in 2014, has a critically flawed design with regard to patient capacity. It was revealed that we, the public, are paying for an inadequately designed medical building and that there was a lack of forward planning for continuing care of patients by several administrations.

We were told that there was a lack of accountability among senior BHB management during the design, development and ongoing management of this hospital facility after its opening. Finally, we were told that during the past three months, the Bermuda Hospitals Board has failed to put simple measures in place to address the bed capacity/flow crisis, despite receiving a January 2026 report, with urgent safety recommendations, (“actions required by King Edward VII Memorial Hospital“) which was submitted by a retired, highly qualified healthcare veteran and KEMH insider.

Our truth messenger is Edward Schultz, a respected, 30-year Chief of Emergency Services who was present during the ACW design phase in 2010. At that time, the chief of staff of the BHB rebuked and dismissed Dr Schultz’s (and others’) repeated warnings about the dangerously flawed building design. They also ignored international healthcare agency recommendations on emergency care hospital design, and the ACW project moved forward.

We all remember when our ACW opened in September 2014. It was with great government fanfare, complete with a blue-ribbon-cutting ceremony held in front of the glossy, spacious entry atrium.

Right from the very start, the acute care bed capacity, both in the new ER and the wards, were showing signs of inadequacy and overcrowding, with patients waiting in hallways. Over the years, the BHB has told us it was because of “granny dumping”, ie, fit-for-release patients who are overstaying. Which is true, mostly owing to the lack of dedicated continuing/long-term care facilities, which various governments have failed to provide.

But now we know the issue is much deeper than that. We now know that the senior management team running the hospital back in 2010 completely ignored sound, internationally accepted hospital design/capacity recommendations, which clearly said to increase bed space, especially given our rapidly ageing population and our high level of chronic diseases.

We now know that the final number of bed spaces was actually (and incredibly) reduced and less than 50 per cent of the entire ACW building actually accommodates patient care. We now know that the BHB executives (at the time) made a conscious decision to proceed with their ill-advised and flawed design for our new acute care hospital and on September 29, 2010, the contract for the Paget Health Services/BHB acute care hospital was signed.

BHB announcement in 2010:

“The new building will be a purpose-built structure that addresses the shortage of space for acute care services detailed in the 2008 Johns Hopkins Medicine International Phase II review.”

There is some painful irony here. Dr Schultz tells us that the oversight position that he served in for so long was actually created by a previous 1983 “Royal Commission of Inquiry into Emergency Care in Bermuda”, after concerns that a number of preventable deaths had occurred among patients who had attended the Emergency Department at KEMH.

That inquiry produced 17 recommendations, one of which was that the BHB should hire a board-certified emergency physician from North America to provide clinical oversight of the unit, and thus Dr Schultz was hired in 1988. All of the COI recommendations were eventually implemented, resulting in a dramatic improvement in the quality of Bermuda’s emergency care.

We should all have great respect and gratitude for Dr Schultz, who I know will not like being referred to as a “whistleblower”. He is right to say that this medical service crisis concerning the flawed design of our one and only hospital cannot be understated. It now deserves an immediate ”all hands on deck“ response from the community, the Opposition and the Government, who should act in tandem, if there is such a thing in politics, and quickly implement responsible, short-term solutions (Dr Schultz has already given us plenty) along with a dedicated, long-term plan using broad, expert health provider input.

Dr Schultz has also requested a commission of inquiry on the operational issues affecting the hospital and I wholeheartedly agree. I would also go a step farther and mandate that the Government publish an unredacted copy of that 2010 Paget Health Group/BHB contract for the design, build and maintenance of the ACW facility, which the public have never seen. Transparency by this government continues to be completely off the radar.

On another newsworthy item, when will the Government release its final report to the public regarding the 2023 cyberattack? When will they confirm or deny that the Government paid a ransom or whether our personal/financial information was breached? The Government now tells us that banking scams targeting Bermudians have escalated since 2023, with police reporting losses in the millions. Is there a connection? So many questions, but the Government’s only answer is: “We must remain vigilant”.

BEVERLEY CONNELL

Pembroke