The mayor of Lachine says he's prepared to take to the streets with pot and pans to save the Lachine Hospital.
Borough mayor Claude Dauphin said Monday he’s prepared to demonstrate after Quebec’s health minister announced plans to remove it from McGill University Health Centre’s jurisdiction and run it as a French institution.
“All we know is it's a bad decision from the patients’ point of view,” said Dauphin, who said they’re organizing protests to let their voices be heard, after the government did not consult with hospital management before announcing the plan.
Formerly run by the local health and social services network – the CSSS LaSalle-Dorval-Lachine, the intensive care unit was closed in 2005. In 2006 the emergency room closed.
The MUHC took over in 2008, and since then, the hospital has been thriving, said Marquette MNA Francois Ouimet, who said he would like to meet with Health Minister Rejean Hebert to discuss the history of the hospital.
“He will be penalizing patients and he will be punishing this hospital in ways which we tried to move away from 5-6 years ago by entering into a partnership with McGill university. He wants to bring us back into a situation that was a nightmare for the hospital,” said Ouimet.
Hebert has stated he wants to reintegrate the hospital into the French-language CSSS, even though the hospital, though run by the bilingual MUHC, is actually mostly French.
For patients it all comes down to care, and some fear the move will cause problems
“We have 120 dialysis patients that were supposed to be transferred to Lachine,” said Clarise Samuels of the MUHC Users’ Committee. “Where are these stations going to go?”
The Montreal Health and Social Services Agency announced Monday it will soon appoint someone to analyze the move and proceed to consultations.
The agency plans to announce the fate of the hospital in May.
