Sewage befouls new superhospital
Black sewer water that “smells worse than rotten fish” is backing up drains and pooling in bathrooms at the new Montreal Children’s Hospital.
The plumbing problems are the latest in a series of glitches — as many as 14,000 — that continue to plague the $1.3-billion superhospital of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), which was the focus of a multimillion-dollar fraud investigation.
“There have been at least a dozen incidents where the following has happened, as high as the ninth floor,” said a source at the MUHC, who declined to have his or her name published for fear of reprisals. “Management keeps bringing in the plumbers to snake the drains, but the problem keeps coming back again and again. This is very, very disruptive for patients and staff.”
The superhospital was built as a public-private partnership, with SNC-Lavalin winning the contract in 2010 after a competition with a Spanish-led consortium.
Former SNC-Lavalin executives now face criminal charges alleging they made $22.5 million in bribes to former MUHC officials to win the contract. One of those was former CEO Arthur Porter, who died on June 30 in Panama.
Quebec authorities last year obtained court orders to freeze Porter’s luxury properties in the Caribbean, along with bank accounts around the world. They also froze assets belonging to Porter’s onetime right-hand man, Yanaï Elbaz, and his brother, Yohann.
But those seized properties were, collectively, worth about $17.5 million, leaving $5 million outstanding. Documents seen by the Montreal Gazette suggest $4 million of that was somewhere in Panama.
The MUHC has been at loggerheads with SNC-Lavalin over a wide range of “deficiencies” — from faulty wiring to leaking ceilings — since before the superhospital opened in the spring.
The health centre has, to date, spent more than $1.5 million in legal fees haggling with the construction company.
The sewer water backup problem appears to be confined to the new Montreal Children’s part of the complex, which opened on May 24.
On Tuesday afternoon, a reporter entered a public bathroom in the lobby of the Montreal Children’s next to a bank of elevators and was immediately overcome by a noxious stench. The fumes were so overpowering that one could not stay in the bathroom for longer than a few seconds, enough time to take a picture of a central floor drain that was taped over with masking tape.
The door was not locked and no sign was posted warning people of the smell.
“I know that a drain has overflowed in the (intensive-care unit) at the Children’s at least once,” the source said. “It has happened on the eight floor at least five times in several different rooms. I have never seen black water come up from the drains in the old building.”