Some health professionals have likened parts of the Montreal General Hospital to working in the dark ages, but Global News has learned that initial planning has finally begun for a significant modernization project worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“I think it’s a very good idea,” said Dr. Christopher Labos, a Montreal cardiologist. “I think it’s necessary. We need to keep updating our infrastructure.”
In a statement to Global News, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), which oversees the hospital, writes, “our primary goal is to renovate the inpatient units to allow for single patient rooms with individual bathrooms, aligning with the modern standard for patient well-being and infection control in healthcare settings.”
“Currently in the initial planning phase, the focus for this year will be on prioritizing renovation needs and planning various phases of the works. Additionally, we will be completing the necessary documentation required by the MSSS for major infrastructure projects.”
For health professionals like Labos who say many of the city’s older hospitals are in bad shape, the details of what’s planned for the General make sense, especially the plan for single-patient rooms.
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“(It) is, I think, in keeping with the general consensus that for infection control measures, single-patient rooms are better,” he pointed out.
Talk about revamping the aging hospital goes back more than a decade, and the Quebec Liberals announced a modernization project in 2018.
“It’s great for patients, great for medical personnel to have something new, more space, more room,” patient advocate Paul Brunet said.
In addition to the $300-million project, even more work is being done at the hospital. In December 2023 the hospital unveiled a newly renovated emergency department, work that took three years.
On its website, the MUHC describes some of the improvements: “a new ventilation unit, two full bathrooms with showers, sinks in each of the seven new patient rooms, negative pressure rooms and a new pharmacy zone.
But while some experts laud the improvements, Brunet cautions that not enough is spent on other areas of health care and that more emphasis needs to be elsewhere.
“We get announcements of more beds in hospitals and more beds in emergency wards, whereas we have elders who are still waiting for beds in long-term facilities,” he said.
The $300-million renovation at the General is expected to begin in late 2026.
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