Project will modernize Montreal General
$300M project to modernize outdated hospital
Prominent Montreal thoracic surgeon and trauma specialist David Mulder didn’t hold back in describing the Montreal General Hospital’s emergency room and operating block.
On Thursday, Mulder, for whom the MGH trauma centre is named, said the hospital is “an embarrassment, absolutely Dark Ages, Third World.”
Mulder spoke after a press conference Thursday where the Quebec Health Department announced the MGH is to get a $300-million modernization project, expected to be realized within four years. Mulder said the renovations were necessary a decade ago.
Formerly MGH’s chief surgeon and currently the Canadiens’ head physician, Mulder lobbied successive Quebec health ministers for top-level trauma care.
Mulder said he had been in talks with the provincial government for 10 to 12 years about the need to renovate the “Dark Ages” at the hospital, which is home to one of Quebec’s three trauma centres for adults.
Because it was built in the 1950s, some of its facilities are not up to today ’s standards, Mulder said. For example, some operating rooms are too small to accommodate the equipment necessary in surgery. Four operating theatres were renovated and do the bulk of major surgery, he said. However, four or
What really bothers me is the emergency room. It’s an embarrassment for the patients, but also for our nurses.
five of a total of 12 operating rooms are permanently closed for business because they’re not up to par with modern standards, he added.
“But what really bothers me is the emergency room,” Mulder told the Montreal Gazette. “It’s an embarrassment for the patients, but also for our nurses. It’s often so crowded they have difficulty walking between the beds.”
Mulder said the hospital’s modernization project is encouraging news.
“It’s an enormous day for me to see this happen,” Mulder said. “This will be progress.”
Mulder thanked Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette for proceeding with the renovation project.
Barrette said the hospital’s modernization project has been included in the Quebec infrastructure plan. The plan prioritizes revamping the operating block, the emergency department and sterilization unit.
A feasibility study will be held on building a new wing within a U-shaped courtyard flanked by wings A, C and D, where the ambulances enter.
A helicopter transport pilot project is to be included in the new development plan.
According to government data for the fiscal year 2016-17, nearly 18,000 Quebecers have been waiting more than six months and some more than two years for surgery, including 9,541 patients in Montreal.
A report released by Coalition Avenir Québec in 2016 charged that operating rooms are left empty almost half the time while 20,000 Quebecers wait for surgical intervention.