BERMUDA'S hospitals were losing money at the rate of nearly $7,000 a day in the last financial year ? now they're making a profit.

Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) chairman Jonathan Brewin credited the financial turn-around to a team effort and in particular the work of a pro-active management team.

He said that in the year ended March 2003, the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and St. Brendan's Hospital had posted a loss of around $2.5 million.

"In the financial year ending 2003, we lost a lot of money but this year we have a surplus," Mr. Brewin said.

"The managers are doing a great job of managing their budgets and I'm pleased that the Financial Committee is making such good progress.

"They have managed to be successful despite the cost of Hurricane Fabian, which was expensive not just in terms of structural damage but also in overtime."

The September hurricane blew away one-third of the fifth floor of the KEMH building and forced the relocation of the Human Resources Department.

Mr. Brewin, president of HWP and New Venture, took over as chairman of the BHB last April and brought in a new board.

Since then the hospitals have refinanced BHB bonds saving themselves $700,000 over the next six years.

Mr. Brewin has experience of top-level hospital administration at both private and state-run hospitals in the UK.

Yesterday there was further encouraging news for the BHB, as the results of a consumer survey were released showing that 86 per cent of patients questioned had been completely or mostly satisfied with the quality of care they received on their last visit to the hospital.

More than eight in ten residents were completely or generally satisfied with the range of health care services available in Bermuda, while 64 per cent considered the quality of health care here to be either excellent or good.

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