Former hospital nurse Golinda Fox has defended the feeding of patients at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and said she has never seen any patients deliberately not being fed.

And she also believes the hospital management was right to construct a new morgue even if it did result in criticism about the temporary morgue arrangements, which included refrigerated units outside the main building.

Now an organiser with the Bermuda Public Services Union, Mrs. Fox has 30 years experience from being employed at the hospital and gave her thoughts on concerns raised recently by Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson, who claimed there were instances of patients unable to eat unaided who were having their food tray taken away without being offered feeding assistance.

The hospital has responded to the UBP MP's concerns by stating that it has reviewed its procedures to ensure that no patient goes without food unless it is of their own choice. Mrs. Fox said it might sometimes appear that a patient is not being attended to due to nurses carrying out other duties or a spread out shift team, but it was always the case that a nurse would ensure a patient was ultimately seen to.

"As soon as the opportunity arises the nurses will go and check that their patient is fed and they will warm up the food if needed. I was a nurse there for 30 years and I do not believe that any nurse would deliberately not feed a patient," she said. Mrs. Fox said the temporary morgue was necessary for the hospital to carry out alterations to upgrade the main morgue, even if the whole thing will need to be demolished in coming years when the KEMH is rebuilt, either at its present site or elsewhere.

BPSU general secretary Ed Ball, also a former hospital staff member, said: "I have worked in the morgue. It was very sensible for the Bermuda Hospitals Board to have built a new morgue as the one they had had been there since the 1960s and a new one was overdue."

He said using temporary refrigerated morgues was not unheard off, particularly in the immediate aftermath of disasters such as the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and last autumn's hurricane-induced floods in New Orleans.

Mr. Ball added: "It was a bit unfair for critics to sensationalise the situation when there was no other action that could be taken."