The Bermuda Hospital Board has set high goals for the upcoming year in its annual report.

One of its goals is to increase its recruitment and retention rates of all health care professionals.

Currently the BHB employs 1,400 permanent staff and 200 on call locum staff.

Venetta Symonds, BHB Organisational Review Officer, said the BHB has launched a special internal initiative called Project TouchPoint to address retention and recruitment.

?It empowers staff to make the changes that will directly impact their work lives,? she said.

Mrs. Symonds said there are a number of ways the hospital?s Project TouchPoint will help the situation.

One way is to maintain relationships with former employees through an alumni network. Another way is to improve the speed and efficiency of the hiring process and enhance the support system available to new employees.

Mrs. Symonds said the Board will also be providing relevant information on its newly updated website www.bermudahospitals.bm.

The Board?s commitment to keep the staff it currently employs will also involve retention training for managers.

Mrs. Symonds said 130 staff members have already joined TouchPoint teams. ?We are very encouraged by the response thus far, and are looking forward to moving ahead with our plans for increased recruitment and retention,? she said.

Current staff at the hospital are kept busy, last year alone 32,000 people were admitted to the emergency room. There were also 8,188 operations performed at the hospital and 825 babies were born there.

The board also said this year?s focus will be to develop a final master plan for building a new hospital, while maintaining the current one.

Last week the plan, which outlines possible options for where a new central hospital can be built, was put before Government decision-makers as the latest step towards finding a solution.

The main issue is whether or not to build a new hospital to replace the current, ageing facility, in a new location or demolish the current building and construct a new one on the current site.

The BHB also announced that it hopes to obtain additional international accreditation. In the last fiscal year the hospital and MAWI were accredited buy the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation. In the coming year it hopes to form a partnership with the UK Royal College of Physician Training Programme in order to facilitate house officer recruitment.