People needing emergency medical treatment are not turned away from the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, nor are patients discharged from the hospital until it is deemed medically appropriate.

Hospital chief Venetta Symonds has responded to a claim by a woman that she has been turned away from the hospital despite having what she says are undiagnosed symptoms.

In a story in yesterday?s the woman, who asked not to be named, claimed she ended up going to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Boston where she paid to see a specialist internist medic who diagnosed part of the pain she had been suffering with for weeks was caused by Gastroenteritis.

Further symptoms of shooting pains in her arm have not yet been diagnosed and the woman is waiting for an MRI scan the KEMH but must wait until May 17 although she has attempted to have her appointment brought forward.

Before going to Boston of her own accord she had previously attempted to gain treatment at the KEMH being admitted at the third attempt, she claimed, when she underwent tests that did not detect the cause of her pains.

Mrs. Symonds, acting CEO of the Bermuda Hospitals Board, said she could not go in to details because of patient confidentiality, but wished to reassure the public that the hospital?s emergency department does not turn away patients in need of medical treatment nor are patients discharged ?unless deemed medically appropriate?.

Some of the frustration the woman has encountered in her pursuit of a diagnosis for the sickness she has experienced during the past three months may also have been the result of decisions by private consultants and physicians outside the control of the hospital.

?BHB supports all private physicians and healthcare services in the execution of their duties. Medical diagnosis made by private physicians and courses of treatment prescribed by private physicians are not determined by the BHB,? said Mrs. Symonds. ?BHB does not control the length of time it takes for patients to be seen by their doctors.?

And Mrs. Symonds said the hospital has a quality and risk management department to handle individual patient complaints should they feel they have not be given adequate treatment.