Mobilizing Once Again for the Preservation of Lachine Hospital’s Emergency Room

The Association of General Practitioners of Montreal, the Regional Department of General Medicine of Montreal and the Mayor of Lachine are working together to preserve the community mission of the Lachine Hospital as well as its emergency. They are asking the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) not to transform the facility into an outpatient center, an avenue that management is considering.

The head of the Regional Department of General Medicine (DRMG) of Montreal, the D^re Ariane Murray, sent a letter Thursday to the CEO of the MUHC, the D^re Lucie Opatriny. In the missive, of which The duty became aware, she writes that the Lachine community hospital is “necessary” in the region and that its transformation into an ambulatory center “would be a serious mistake and would confirm a lack of planning and understanding of the needs of the local and territorial population of the western sector from the MUHC”.

The D^re Murray emphasizes that the Montreal DRMG must be “a stakeholder in the steps surrounding the evaluation of the scenarios under study”, because its “expertise and field of competence is the establishment and organization of general services on the Island of Montreal, as well as the assessment of primary and secondary care needs provided by Montreal general practitioners”.

“Despite the brief exchanges we had with [le CUSM] about the difficult situation in terms of medical and professional staff, we do not consider that we have been involved in the discussions that are currently taking place,” she wrote.

In interview with The dutythe D^re Murray hammers home his message: the Lachine hospital must maintain its community mission. Transforming it into an outpatient center “will not bring significant added value”.

“In Montreal right now, what’s missing are hospital beds. This is one of the major reasons why our patients stay in the emergency room, ”says the doctor, who is part of the crisis unit set up last fall by Quebec to relieve congestion in the emergency room. “In Montreal, a priori, we should aim to increase the number of hospital beds, not reduce them. »

common front

The Association of General Practitioners of Montreal (AMOM) also expressed to D^re Opatrny his “concern” about the outpatient center scenario. In a letter sent on February 28, of which The duty obtained a copy, its president, the D^r Michel Vachon denounces this “incomprehensible about-face” on the part of the MUHC. He recalls that a year ago, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, gave his approval to the modernization project of the Lachine hospital, an investment of more than 200 million dollars.

“In the current context where there is still overheating in all of the surrounding ERs, how can we consider restricting or even closing these ERs, or even intensive care permanently, without seeing a negative impact? on the service offer? What the west of Montreal needs are more beds and a renewed reception capacity in local services for less well-served communities, such as Lachine and Dorval. »

The Mayor of the Borough of Lachine, Maja Vodanović, says she “does not understand how the MUHC can even consider removing an emergency in the West Island”. “The only emergency we have in the West is Lakeshore Hospital, which has an occupancy rate [sur civière] 175% on a fairly regular basis and even, sometimes, 200%, ”said the elected official, who wrote to the CEO of the MUHC on this subject on Wednesday.

M^me Vodanović will take part in a citizen march on Saturday aimed at keeping the Lachine hospital emergency room open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as well as intensive care.

Since February 14, the hospital’s emergency room has been operating from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for outpatients, i.e. those arriving by their own means at the emergency room. “Ambulances transporting patients in need of acute care” are “redirected to other hospitals”, indicates the MUHC on its website.

According to the health establishment, the Lachine hospital “has been facing labor challenges for several years, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic”. In a press release issued on February 8, the MUHC indicates that “at the request of the new CEO of the MUHC, the D^re Lucie Opatrny, the clinical leaders of the establishment will immediately begin discussions in order to assess the best solution for the mission of the hospital”.

Questioned by The duty Regarding the future of the Lachine hospital, the MUHC says it is continuing its “study work on two scenarios”. “In the first scenario considered, there would be a greater focus on the development of clinics for the follow-up of chronic diseases and on hospitalized patients who would be more clinically stable”, one writes. It would be an outpatient center. “The second scenario would be the maintenance of the community vocation of the hospital”, we continue in the email.

In both cases, the Lachine hospital would have 60 hospital beds, assures the MUHC. “Patients will therefore be hospitalized in the two scenarios envisaged, but would have different profiles, with different clinical needs, depending on the services that we could offer”, explains the health establishment.

The MUHC specifies that “several meetings” have been held with the ministry on the two scenarios and that a working group “bringing together the medical leadership and the clinical-administrative leadership of the MUHC” is examining the question with representatives of the CIUSSS. of the West Island of Montreal. Discussion groups are also organized.

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