Under-fire hospitals chief Raymonde Dill yesterday launched a bid to patch up wounded feelings among overseas staff.

And he vowed: "If these concerns are real and they are not being heard when they're talking to their line managers and supervisors, they should come and see me.'' Mr. Dill was speaking after furious insiders blasted the Hospitals Board chairman for blaming the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's heavy reliance on overseas nurses for staff shortages.

And they added that suggestions that nurses could quit with only two to four weeks' notice -- and tended to leave at the end of the summer -- was an insult to their dedication and professionalism.

The staffers pointed out that quitting before three months' notice could potentially cost thousands in lost benefits because they would have broken their contracts.

They also said overseas nurses were being used as scapegoats and King Edward bosses were "attempting to manipulate the public''.

The insiders also insisted that the hospital was suffering a staffing crisis -- and that that was set to worsen amid plummeting morale and "incompetent'' management.

Mr. Dill said he did not intend to upset expatriate nurses -- and that he had praised all the staff, irrespective of origin, for their dedication and professionalism in recent interviews.

The board chairman, however, stuck to his guns on staffing and said -- although there were vacancies and overtime needed to be worked -- statistics showed it was not yet a serious problem.

But he added that he had not finished examining overtime and sickness levels -- and intended to compare them with Bermuda's corporate world and similar hospitals overseas to get a better picture.

And Mr. Dill said: "The numbers are high, but they don't seem to be skyrocketing.'' But he said: "I'm personally upset by these accusations, therefore I'll go back over the facts I've been given again.'' Mr. Dill also appeared to back away from his claim that the end of the summer was a "classic time for non-Bermudians to say they've had enough and go home'' -- which drew a furious reaction from overseas staff.

He said: "There are noticeably certain times of the year when people tend to move. What I saw, at the end of the summer, is it highest? I would say probably not.

"But is it popular? Yes.'' He added that some expatriates were on contracts which required only four weeks' notice. But he said: "I have discovered now that there are other contracts which are for three months' notice.'' Dill seeks peace with overseas staff And he called on any staff member with complaints -- including the anonymous ones to the media -- to come to him or acting Chief Executive Officer Lucille Parker.

Mr. Dill said outside consultants had identified low morale as a problem in the hospital during a survey.

He added: "Morale is high on my list of things to do something about. I'm not going to deny that morale may be an issue.'' And he said he had already started open meetings with staff to identify problems and do something about them.

Mr. Dill added: "Some of it is based on perception, some of it is based on true feelings -- and one of the things which came out of the survey is that for a healing process to begin, you have to begin talking.'' Raymonde Dill