(Quebec) Minister Christian Dubé undertakes to add “the sums necessary” to deliver the 720 beds planned for the expansion and modernization project of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR) hospital, without indicating when or how many. He is now talking about a “step-by-step” project, while the community is calling for a firm commitment to the realization of a possible second phase.
The Press revealed Friday that the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal must submit its expansion and modernization project to a slimming cure to respect the budget allocated by Quebec, or 2.5 billion.
A financial analysis by the Société québécoise des infrastructures recently concluded that the initial project to add 720 new beds in a new pavilion would instead cost 4.2 billion, due to overheating in the construction industry.
Reliable sources have confirmed that the establishment has received an indication to present a project in respect of the funding granted by the Legault government. Result: the management is currently analyzing a much less ambitious expansion and now plans to renovate the most dilapidated part of HRM, the main building in a cross, the cruciform. A scenario that creates internal turmoil.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, PRESS ARCHIVES
Christian Dube
On Friday, the Minister of Health affirmed, in reaction to the revelations of The Press, that it is “completely false to say that the expansion of HMR will be limited”.
“We have already put 2.5 [milliards] on the table to get the work started as quickly as possible. We will add the sums necessary to provide 720 beds as planned, ”he said on Twitter, without further details. At the beginning of the afternoon, he offered a new clarification on the social network now evoking an expansion and modernization project which will be carried out “in stages”.
“I’m going to be very clear… We’re going to do it in stages and we’re going to renovate the hospital and there’s going to be the additional rooms that we’ve committed to [à construire] “, tweeted the minister, repeating his remarks made in an interview with Radio-Canada, Friday.
Our request for an interview with the minister was refused on Friday.
To respect the amounts allocated by Quebec, the CIUSSS will not be able to add 720 new beds in a brand new pavilion, but between 150 and 320 at best. This means that we would favor the reorganization of more than 400 beds in the main building, which currently has 455. We would then focus on a second phase of work to complete the addition of beds if necessary and complete the modernization.
The project is still in the planning stage.
Concerns for the future
The scenario in two or more phases worries internally while the east of Montreal has been waiting for ages for its expansion project.
The head of HMR’s intensive care unit and defender of the expansion project, Dr.r François Marquis, believes in this sense that “to reassure everyone, we should hang on to phase two now rather than setting it off in an uncertain future”. He said he recognized in the report by The Press the scenario presented by the management to the doctors last fall.
Although he pleads for the plan to start quickly, even if it is “imperfect”, the Dr Marquis is worried about the renovation of the cruciform and finds it hard to understand why we favor its renovation if it is to ultimately move them during a possible second phase. It should be remembered that the initial project provided for all the rooms to be rebuilt in a new pavilion.
“Personally, I think it’s a bad use of budgets,” he said. ” We know it [depuis la pandémie] that we are not able to control an infection in the cruciform. We can’t change the ceilings, the walls. How are they going to be able to bring this up to post-pandemic standards? “, he adds.
You can’t stick your head in the sand. That means that there would be 400 rooms that we are going to renovate knowing that they will never be able to do the job of a modern hospital room. That, that is worrying!
The Dr François Marquis, head of the intensive care unit at HMR
“There are limits to making something new with something old,” lamented Quebec Solidarity MP Vincent Marissal. He accuses the Legault government of trying to “save pennies” with a major infrastructure project.
” [Le ministre Dubé dit] 720 beds. When ? In what time frame? And in which place, because we are doing in health in the East what we did with the blue line in public transit in the East. That’s called shoveling forward, ”says the MP for Rosemont.
“We have reached a point where we will stop with the minister from launching tweets and press lines. We’re fed up with the press lines in the East, we want a plan. A plan means timelines, it also means an architect’s plan on architects’ paper,” added Mr. Marissal.
The Liberal MP and health critic, André Fortin, also deplored the fact that the project is not being carried out in a single phase.
“Employees at Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont are right to be concerned about Minister Dubé’s idea of proceeding in two phases. There is no evidence that costs would decrease by doing so. On the contrary, the longer the government waits, the higher the bill is likely to be, and the greater the chances that the project will not be carried out. This project had been prioritized and budgeted before the arrival of the CAQ in 2018. They were the ones who chose to postpone and delay the project,” he denounced.