‘Super-clinic’ planned for Hôtel-Dieu
But activists want social housing considered after hospital closes
Health Minister Gaétan Barrette announced Friday he will open a “super-clinic” in Hôtel-Dieu Hospital after it closes next year, but community activists are upset that the government’s plans for the property do not include any social housing.
Hôtel-Dieu, founded in 1645 by the nurse Jeanne Mance, is the oldest hospital in Montreal, and has pioneered treatments for burn victims. But next spring it will close and its medical services will be transferred to the French-language superhospital of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM).
The eventual closing of HôtelDieu has raised concerns among area residents about how the government will make use of its many buildings. Hôtel-Dieu has run one of the city’s busiest emergency departments, which doubled its size in 2004.
The opening of a super-clinic should alleviate concerns about a lack of access to local health care once Hôtel-Dieu closes, Barrette’s press attaché told the Montreal Gazette.
“A super-clinic is something between a hospital ER and a doctor’s office,” Joanne Beauvais said, explaining that the super-clinic would be open seven days a week, including during the evenings, and would provide patients with onsite blood tests and X-rays. Most clinics don’t offer such diagnostic services.
During the 2014 provincial election, Barrette campaigned on a promise to open 50 super-clinics, dubbed “family medicine groups on steroids.”
The super-clinics will be run privately by groups of 12 to 15 physicians, but patients will not pay out of pocket for the medical services.
Some super-clinics will also perform ultrasounds and echocardiograms or “organize corridors of service” to make such tests available nearby, Beauvais added.
The government is negotiating the regulatory framework for the super-clinics with the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec, which represents the province’s family doctors.
The Health Department also plans to move some of its administrative offices to the Hôtel-Dieu property, which is a vast complex of buildings and pavilions along St-Urbain St. And the Université de Montréal intends to establish
its Public Health School in one of the buildings.
But Lucia Kowaluk, of the Milton Park Citizens’ Committee, said the provincial government should have converted some of the buildings for social housing.
“We, the citizens, the taxpayers of Quebec, are the owners of this property,” Kowaluk said after Barrette’s announcement.
“The government is acting as if it’s a private company and can do with the property what it wants.”
Beauvais, however, noted that two buildings — Pavillon J.-A.De Sève and Pavillon L.-C.-Simard — “are still up for sale.”
She suggested it might be possible to convert some of that space into social housing.
“I have been told that the Société d’habitation (et de développement) de Montréal (SHDM) is interested,” Beauvais added. “Community groups will still be able to (press) either the new owners or the city of Montreal on the usage they wish for those buildings.”
Officials at the SHDM, the city corporation in charge of affordable housing, were unavailable for comment Friday.