A long-term care centre that caters to anglophones will close its doors in September.
Close to 100 patients will be transferred from the Grace Dart Centre on Sherbrooke St. East to the Ste. Anne's Hospital in St. Anne de Bellevue, which will be under provincial management as of April 1.
Managers say the small, shared rooms no longer meet provincial norm and that the families of 70 per cent of residents live in the West Island, and so they believe the Ste. Anne de Bellevue location will be more convenient.
"When a senior needs a place in the West Island, we tell them there's no room and they have to come here. They often ask us to go back so they can be close to family members," said Patrick Murphy Lavallee of the West Island CIUSSS health organization, which oversees the facility.
Unionized employees warn the move will be disastrous for users as well as their families and employees.
Those who refuse will have to be transferred elsewhere, although no other location has been named so far.
The Grace Dart Extended Care Centre was established more than 150 years ago for anglophone Montrealers suffering from severe loss of autonomy.
A second Grace Dart facility on Ste. Catherine St. is not affected, but managers admit the it may also shut down. Most of the 250 beds there would also go to Ste. Anne's.
But if that happens, “we will make sure that the anglophone population in the east end has access to services in English … in the east end,” Murphy Lavallée said.
