This week, there was a lot of talk – with good reason – about the closure of the emergency room at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital (HMR) on Monday night because a group of nurses were exhausted from “compulsory overtime” and the toxic work environment.
But there is another major file at HMR: the future of this essential hospital for the east end of Montreal.
The Government of Quebec has been underinvesting in health care in eastern Montreal for decades. While the rest of the city has had two new, state-of-the-art hospitals (the CHUM and the MUHC), the east of Montreal is still stuck with a dilapidated hospital, which must serve 25% of the Montreal population with 17% of beds.
In 2021, the Government of Quebec announced that it would modernize HMR by investing 2.5 billion for 720 beds. At last ! Since 2010, three Ministers of Health have announced the modernization of HMR, which has not yet taken place.
Initially, the internal plan after the 2021 announcement was to build 720 beds in new pavilions, according to our information.
It’s not going as planned. The costs of the initial project have increased from 2.5 to 4.2 billion, according to Radio-Canada.
And in an article published on Friday, our colleague Fanny Lévesque reveals that we are instead evaluating a second, less ambitious scenario to respect the initial budget of 2.5 billion: we would renovate the 450 existing beds in the old building (the cruciform), and we would add beds in a new pavilion to reach 720 beds. As renovating costs less than building new, we would have more chances of respecting the initial budget.
The Legault government reiterated Friday its intention to modernize HMR to reach 720 beds, even if it means adding money if necessary. Very well. But Minister Christian Dubé is now talking about a “step by step” project. And he does not say when these sums will be available, nor if we will bet on the cheaper option of renovating 450 beds. This is a really important detail!
Let’s give back to the Legault government what is due to the Legault government: it is the first government to truly unblock the project. It should have been done a decade ago.
Except that we can’t help seeing the glass half empty: renovating the 450 beds of the cruciform does not seem to us to be the best option. It will be very complicated during the works (is it really possible to renovate without reducing services?). It’s a funny idea to renovate such a dilapidated and limited building in the long term. And as an incentive for employee retention – a major problem at HMR – we will come back. Renovation offers only one advantage: it costs less.
The initial budget of $2.5 billion for 720 beds at HMR does not meet the healthcare needs of eastern Montreal, a sector that has been neglected for decades.
In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, a new hospital will cost 2.6 billion… for 404 beds (opening scheduled for 2026). The budget was increased from 1.5 billion in 2018 to 2.6 billion in 2022.
In Montreal, the CHUM, completed in 2021, cost 3.6 billion for 772 beds.
And we are thinking of making 720 beds with 2.5 billion at HMR? The math just doesn’t work, especially with inflation.
Okay, in Quebec, the Child Jesus will cost 2.24 billion for 700 beds (construction from 2017 to 2029), because we have chosen 350 new beds and 350 renovated beds. But the renovated beds are in high-quality buildings, which have an average dilapidation rating of A, the best possible rating (scale of A to E). It doesn’t compare to HMR’s cruciform, which has a D rating. Free translation: a building too badly damaged to be renovated in an ideal world.
The Legault government must decide over the next few months for the future of HMR. This decision will be crucial for patients in the east end of Montreal for decades. You don’t build a 700-bed hospital every year.
Quebec must spend public funds responsibly, but also thinking about the long term. It is sometimes worth spending a little more to get a quality result, as Quebec will do for the new hospital in Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
For HMR, being responsible and seeing the long term means making 720 new beds in a single construction phase, and paying more than the 2.5 billion initially planned.
East of Montreal has already waited long enough.