by Isis Meunier
October 26, 2015 | News
”We have always worked closely with the Ville de Montréal and community organizations to define the best possible project, both for Montreal as a whole and for the CHUM’s patients, employees and physicians. We will continue to do so.” – Patrick Molinari, Chair of the Board of Directors of the CHUM.
The Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) was founded in 1995 and is composed of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the Notre-Dame and the Saint-Luc hospitals. Over the years, the CHUM has decided to reunite these three hospitals to form ‘‘The CHUM of Tomorrow’’. This super hospital is situated downtown on either side of Viger street: on one side, the Hospital Center, and on the other, the Research Centre.
In all, it will take up 285 000 square meters. A pedestrian tunnel links the Champs-de-Mars metro station to the Research Centre. The CHUM’s goals are to finish constructing the hospital by 2016, to transfer the Saint-Luc Hospital by 2017 and to finish constructing the library and amphitheatre by 2020. It is estimated to cost about $2 billion.
Francine Poulin, head assistant nurse for the night shift at Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, said that at the Emergency they will have less patients lying down, which means that they want to lessen the time that patients will stay in bed. This super hospital will be equipped with the latest technologies and expertise since it will offer specialized and ultra specialized services in different fields such as: neurosciences, oncology, transplantation, functional musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. There will be 772 private rooms, which is the majority of the total number of rooms. Miss Poulin believes having private rooms will help in reducing infections from expanding since patients will not be in contact with each other, but that it will create a problem for the middle class.
“The CHUM of Tomorrow” will be managed under the same board of directors and general manager as the Ste-Justine Hospital. The man at the head of this merged administration will be Fabrice Brunet. There have been rumours about the new hospital not offering any parking spaces to the employees, except for the doctors and administrators. Francine Poulin says that she has been told otherwise. The night shift workers will get to keep their parking spaces, but not those working during the day. They will have to park downtown and take a shuttle that will bring them directly to the hospital, all at their own cost. At this time, this is only speculation.
Please note that this article was falsely credited in Volume 45, Issue 4, of The Plant. Isis Meunier is the correct author of this article.