Last December 12, during the public meeting of the Board of Directors of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC), it was stated that ” […] you have to do without [ce] small community hospital that could never offer all the services, you really have to see it as a complement to the tertiary and quaternary mission of the MUHC […] “.
On the contrary, the MUHC needs to save this Francophone community hospital to care for a local population. The Lachine Hospital should serve the population, not the MUHC!
The hospital is mainly made up of family physicians who provide quality services. According to the magazine Newsweekthe Lachine hospital was considered, in 2021, as the 20e of the top 1200 Canadian hospitals in 2021.
Remember that the hospital’s clinical plan, already underway, involves a $220 million renovation. This money is intended for a community hospital and therefore for all the services attached to it, including an emergency room with ambulances and an intensive care unit.
According to the clinical plan, and what is written on the current website, “Lachine Hospital has a community hospital mission”.
On June 7, 2007, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution emphasizing the unique status of the Lachine Hospital in the West Island of Montreal, “particularly for Francophones”, maintaining ” hospital and specialist services.
Lachine Hospital is a community hospital founded in 1913 by the Sisters of Providence to care for women, children, the socially and financially disadvantaged, the disabled, the mentally ill, natives and unsupported French Canadians. charge in their local communities.
It is a complete disappointment to want to change the mission of the hospital at the last moment! The Lachine hospital must no longer be a reserve resource reduced to a source of supply of health care workers to meet the needs of the large university center on which it depends.
The Dr Alan Sager, world expert in the field of community hospitals, asserted that “after the closure of a hospital, 30% of patients stop seeking care altogether, often because they are far from the new point of service”. It also demonstrated that community hospitals provide more efficient services at a lower cost compared to university hospitals.
During a communication on the Lachine hospital, the Dr Sager stated that “as a high-quality community hospital, Lachine is one of the foundations of access to care provided by local doctors serving local patients. Along with other community hospitals, Lachine is essential to maintaining affordable health care for all citizens of Quebec. »
It is important that the Lachine hospital reopen its intensive care unit and 24/7 ambulance services as soon as possible, for the safety and well-being of the population living nearby. The closure of its ambulance services is causing longer trips and longer wait times at nearby hospitals. This means that a patient could be sicker by the time they are admitted to another hospital. Some might even give up traveling, first and foremost the elderly, women and disadvantaged people, whom these elements are more likely to discourage.
Reducing the services offered by this community hospital will only reduce the accessibility of the population served to health care and risks leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality among this clientele.
Mr. Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, Mr. Prime Minister, François Legault, we ask you, on behalf of Francophones in the West Island, and more broadly for the well-being of all Quebecers, to keep the Lachine hospital as it is, as a community hospital with all the services expected in such a case, including intensive care and a 24/7 ambulance service, like this is provided for in the resolution of the National Assembly.
Don’t let the Lachine hospital down, give it its status as a community hospital for the health, well-being and survival of the population.