to slash hospital costs by up to $6 million a year yesterday.

But they remained tight-lipped about how many jobs might be cut as part of the overhaul at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Hospital bosses have already begun a mission to start Programme Management -- an administrative shake-up to realign jobs, improve services and cut costs.

Bermuda Hospitals Board Chairman Clem Talbot and Health Minister Wayne Furbert took the wraps off two Arthur Andersen reports designed to save millions yesterday.

A previous consultancy report -- by Monahan & Associates -- has never been made public but recommended nearly 30 jobs should be axed to save "27.9 full-time salaries''.

At the end of a Press conference, Mr. Talbot told The Royal Gazette : "That number may or may not be accurate.

"We certainly recognise that there will be opportunities for redundancies, just as there will be opportunities being made available in home care and other services provided outside the hospital.

"It's too early to determine whether the number of jobs to go will be higher than that figure or lower.'' The hospital commissioned the reports as it began a bid to solve the dilemma of a $47 million salary bill, with just $74 million coming in.

It is understood the hospital has already budgeted for a major investment to solve software problems which would otherwise send computers haywire when the year 2000 Millennium Bug kicks in.

Date code confusion could stall lifts, unplug biomedical equipment and crash computers containing patients' records -- unless there is a wide-scale upgrade.

The Arthur Andersen reports also suggested the hospital began a major overhaul of its information technology system.

And a Chief Information Officer and Chief Financial Officer have already been hired in line with recommendations.

The thrust of the twin reports is designed to help the hospital free up expensive in-patient space by providing more home-based services for the elderly.

This will help the hospital raise funds by creating more private rooms, offices for doctors, a same-day surgery and labour delivery rooms on old ward space.

Hospital bosses could even consider on-site hotel rooms for patient visitors.

Hospital to cut costs KEMH will seek to foster new partnerships with overseas centres of excellence like the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore -- to qualify for "high-volume discounts'' by referring Bermudians.

And the Ministry of Health will work with the hospital to devise new disease management and prevention programmes, to save on treatment costs by stopping illnesses from starting.

Other recommendations, now being acted on, include a centralised healthcare data bank to build a hi-tech record of services.

There will also be new policies for universal billing and coding, to streamline the hospital's invoice system.

Mr. Talbot said the Bermuda Hospitals Board was now drawing up a five-year spending plan.

He added: "This programme is designed to address the problem of proper utilisation of acute care beds by supporting patients in their homes after discharge from hospital.

"The hospital is prepared to expand the early discharge programme when the necessary prerequisites are in place.

"Steps have also been taken to address disease management and prevention programmes for diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular care.

"Our target date is to be fully operational in the programme management structure by the end of 1998.'' And Mr. Furbert said: "If we can find ways of providing the same good services outside the hospital, at cheaper cost, then that's what we are aiming for.''