Health Minister Nelson Bascome reaffirmed last night that a new chief executive officer for Bermuda's hospitals has not been identified.

He was responding to the claims of Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) general secretary Ed Ball who hit out after a news report on February 27 said Patrice Dill had been named as the next chief executive officer of Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB), yet Mr. Bascome said the following day the announcement would result from a review conducted by management consultants.

The Health Minister said the review would last 60 days at most.

"I heard the news report myself and at the same time persons were being called. It is my information that the story was accurate and that congratulations had actually been offered to Ms Dill," Mr. Ball told The Royal Gazette last night.

He said his information was that Ms Dill had been appointed - and had received congratulations from colleagues - yet Mr. Bascome said the appointment would not be made until consultants Kurron had completed their report.

The result was complete confusion among staff about who had been appointed and who was running the hospital, Mr. Ball said.

"As a consequence of that, staff at the hospital are wondering what exactly is going on. Members are saying we've already heard the CEO has been named, then that Kurron are coming in ... so who is running the hospital?

"We've been told that three Bermudian candidates have been in training for about three years, going away to train, then we hear about Kurron. Who are they and what do they bring to the table?"

But Mr. Ball said while the union was looking for answers, it was not trying to cause any friction with the BHB.

"We don't want to exacerbate the problems, we want to remedy things because there is a lot of confusion. The issue is that the staff are not prepared to go through yet more turmoil," he said.

When contacted last night Mr. Bascome said he did not know where news of Ms Dill's appointment was coming from as he had not been notified of who the CEO designate would be.

"The Board has not given me any official notification of who the candidate is."

In fact, Mr. Bascome said, he heard about the alleged appointment through someone who had listened to last Thursday's ZBM reports. And he was adamant that no one has been appointed for the top hospital appointment.

"If it didn't come from the board, it's not official," he said. "Nothing's been recanted because there's been no notice. As I said before, everything will held in abeyance until the report is complete."