The Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) has been licensed to run King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) and the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute for another three years, its chairman revealed on Tuesday.

"We are happy to report that just last week we have been advised of our new three-year accreditation from the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation," BHB chairman Jonathon Brewin told Hamilton Rotarians.

"We will be making a formal announcement in the next few days about this important achievement, which will include key successes achieved by BHB over the past three years as well as the areas that they highlighted for improvement."

Mr. Brewin cited the health system's healthy balance sheet.

"The BHB has produced a positive net return for the past two years," he said.

BHB generates money from three sources ? patient fees, Government grants and donations from the community.

"Out of an excess of total revenue of $155 million, 55 percent come from Government grants for either the running of Mid-Atlantic or on a fee-for-service basis for those patients who are not able to pay themselves."

However, Mr. Brewin admitted that its buildings needed improvement and would soon make an announcement of a location for a new hospital.

"We have collected hundreds of feedback forms from the public," he said. "We have listened to what everyone had to say and are currently preparing a final business case. There will be an update in the fall."

When asked whether KEMH would stay in its current location, he said it was too early to say.

"But I think that the community has spoken that it would remain fairly close to where we are," he said.

Another major concern is the number of patients who are occupying hospital beds for social rather than medical reasons.

Sadly, he said many patients had nowhere to continue their care after they were released from KEMH.

"I'm afraid that this is part of a national issue which needs to addressed on a broader scale," he said.

The creation of the Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust three years ago assists in fundraising efforts for BHB.

"Through our relationship with the Trust we are partnering with Bermuda's leading business minds from companies such as XL Capital, ACE Ltd., Bank of Bermuda, Butterfield Bank and Belco for upcoming capital projects," he said.

BHB employs a workforce of more than 1,400 permanent staff plus an additional 200 on-call employees making it Bermuda's second largest employer, he said.

Diabetes, obesity, cardiac disease and mental illness are some of the most prevalent health conditions in Bermuda, he said.

BHB offered an "extensive" range of services for the size of population it serves, Mr. Brewin said, but he conceded KEMH cannot provide certain specialist surgeries, because of three factors ? the number of people who need the service, the availability of professionals who can provide it and associated costs.

However, the hospital's referral network includes Johns Hopkins and the Lahey Clinic, he said.

"Last year alone our staff cared for over 32,000 visits to the emergency department, we admitted and discharged almost 7,000 in-patients and we helped deliver 825 babies," he said.

He encouraged the public to visit www.bermudahospitals.com for more information.