The Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) has announced its team to guide the upgrade of its facilities over the coming decade.

It has selected Cannon Design, in association with OBM International, to develop an estate master plan for its facilities.

BHB employees, physicians, board members and stakeholders will be involved in creating the long-range plan, to be presented in May, 2005 covering work until 2015.

The objectives of the estate master planning exercise are to provide modern clinical services to the Bermuda community, to retain and employ quality staff and modernise physical environment and equipment.

Bermuda Hospitals Board CEO Joan Dillas-Wright said: ?We are looking forward to keeping the community apprised of our progress.?

The first step of the estate master planning process will be a strategic review of the BHB estate (King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and St. Brendan?s Hospital).

Cannon Design and OBM International were selected after a thorough review of firms which responded to the BHB?s request for proposal in March.

According to a BHB Press release Cannon Design is an international architectural, engineering and interior design firm with an expertise in healthcare design and is consistently ranked among the top ten firms in North America for planning and designing healthcare facilities. OBM International is a full-service design consulting firm in Bermuda and the Caribbean region.