A poor prescription for a nonexistent problem

Quebec Health Minister Réjean Hébert bowed to common sense in deciding that his department would not proceed with a plan to cut 20 per cent of the beds at Lachine Hospital.

He acknowledged that the proposed elimination of 10 of the 50 beds at the hospital, also known locally as St. Joseph’s, would have a detrimental effect on the institution’s capacity to provide patient services. Designated for long-term care, the beds help unblock the hospital’s chronically congested emergency room.

If patient care is, indeed, the prime consideration for decisions that Hébert’s department makes with respect to Lachine Hospital, he would do well to also backtrack on his announced intention to remove the hospital from its affiliation with the McGill University Health Centre and put it under the control of the Centre de santé et des ser- vices sociaux Dorval–Lachine–LaSalle.

In announcing the move in a letter to the head of the Montreal Health and Social Services Agency, the minister cited concerns brought to his attention that the hospital might better pursue its historic vocation as a French-language hospital under the direction of the francophone CSSS Dorval–Lachine– LaSalle than under the bilingual MUHC.

It is doubtful that this would make the place a better-functioning hospital.

It was previously under the control of the CSSS Dorval–Lachine–LaSalle, and the experience was apparently an unhappy one. The hospital was floundering before the MUHC entered into a partnership with it in 2008; the previous year, the CSSS had proposed to eliminate its emergency room. Since assuming management of the institution, the MUHC has set up bariatric surgery at Lachine, along with other new services, and has recruited some top-flight physicians to work there.

If the transfer proceeds as the minister suggests, it will jeopardize the MUHC’s plan to further upgrade the hospital by transfer- ring dialysis and other services to it — not to mention a planned $55-million renovation. It would also make it more difficult to retain and attract medical personnel of the calibre brought in since the hospital came under the MUHC.

Hébert did not say in his letter what concerns were raised about the hospital’s linguistic situation. The only complaint to have come to light so far has been from French-language hawk Mario Beaulieu of the perpetually alarmist Mouvement Québec français, who professed to be shocked that some anglophone staff had been hired under the MUHC’s administration.

One supposes the MUHC’s projected deficit this year of $115 million could have been a factor in the decision, but the minister’s letter refers only to the linguistic issue.

A more credible voice with regard to the hospital’s linguistic state is Lachine borough mayor Claude Dauphin, who has fired off a letter vigorously protesting the transfer plan. In it, he notes that the hospital has a liaison committee that deals with the MUHC and en- sures that the institution functions altogether well in French.

Dauphin is certainly well-qualified to speak on the matter, more so perhaps than even the minister, in that he has a long and intimate involvement with the institution. Not only is he the local mayor, but he has also served on the hospital’s board and the board of its foundation, and is co-chair of the committee organizing the hospital’s 100th-anniversary observances this year.

In his letter, Dauphin cites the previous dysfunctional relationship with the Dorval–Lachine–LaSalle CSSS and says the switch in affiliation to the MUHC was a win-win thing for the institution. He cautions the minister to expect ringing protests from the local citizenry if he proceeds with his ill-advised plan.

The minister should heed that counsel. This appears to be yet another nonexistent language problem that Hébert’s Parti Québécois is trying to fix with more stringent French enforcement — this time at the potential expense of the health of the community the hospital serves.