with hundreds of others in the United Kingdom and the United States.

By 1994 King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and St. Brendan's Hospital will be linked by the GTE system.

And it will mean less paperwork and phone calls and more time for bedside patient care in the wards.

The Bermuda Hospitals Board took two years to choose a computer system after 17 companies responded to their initial request.

Director of Finance and Administration, Mrs. Annarita Woolridge Marion said: "Subsequently, three companies demonstrated their systems to hospital staff in Bermuda.

"Site visits were then made by Bermuda Hospitals Board staff to hospitals in the United States to carefully review the short-listed systems.'' Staff from both hospitals and the Board opted for the GTE system, currently in use in hospitals in the UK and US, with Bermuda Computer Services offering a wide range of software.

Yesterday, Mr. Hume Martin, executive director of the BHB, and Mr. John Andrews, vice president and general manager of GTE Health Systems, signed the contract which will start two years of installation and training.

Mr. Martin said: "We need a new information system for several reasons. The existing financial information system is 10 years old and we needed an updated system because hospitals are run on an information driven basis. "It would have cost a lot more if we had waited any longer. We could not afford not to do it.'' Mrs. Woolridge Marion pointed out benefits including faster processing of patients, quicker access to medical history, increased accuracy, shorter patient stays, improved billing, reduced costs and more time for patient care.

Nursing representative at St. Brendan's, Mr. Martin Webb said: "It will save a lot of time to enable the nurse to spend more time actually with the patient, performing care.

"They would rather spend time with the patients than doing necessary but time-consuming clerical work.'' Representatives of all departments in the hospitals agreed that immediate access to information would increase efficiency and save time in the hospitals.

In this way checks on medical records, drugs and tests would be available on the computer screens.

But Mr. Webb stressed that information would only be available to doctors and nurses with access codes. No private information concerning patients will be freely available.

HOSPITALS GO HI-TECH -- Executive Director of the Bermuda Hospitals Board, Mr.

Hume Martin (right) signs the contract for the hospitals' $4.2 million computer system, watched by GTE Health Systems Vice-President, Mr. John Andrews.