Housing plan needs a clinic

Re: “Children’s site project should be scaled down” (Opinion, March 14) and “City shouldn’t approve new development as-is” (Opinion, March 27)

Westmount Mayor Peter Trent and Projet Montréal leader Valérie Plante, among others, have questioned the wisdom of permitting highdensity residential towers on the site of the former Montreal Children’s Hospital.

Should this project proceed, we support the widely expressed demand for a new school. There is also a need to consider what is already a dispiriting deficit in access to local health care in the area. The plan calls for 1,400 new living units. If the average number of occupants is two, the total on this one city block will be 2,800 individuals. If the average is 2.5, the total will be 3,500 — a small town.

How will the health-care needs of these new residents be met? Montreal lacks sufficient family physicians. Nearby emergency rooms at the MUHC Glen site (tertiary care) and Montreal General Hospital (trauma centre) are overwhelmed. Local walk-in clinics are normally booked solidly for the day by 10 a.m.

Even if the scope of the development is halved, it should include an enriched CLSC Métro — a fully equipped 24hour medical surgical clinic, including radiology, a plaster room, defibrillators and staff.

In urban planning, densification is trending, but quality of life will diminish for all if we do not ensure that sufficient services are part of the changing environment. Nicole Forbes, Westmount city councillor, Jean Williams and members of the Westmount Healthy City Project