Ten years after doctors began publicly complaining about the state of the emergency room at LaSalle Hospital, the ER has been completely renovated – at a cost of $35,055,000 and ahead of schedule.
“The emergency room opened three months before the due date,” said Henri Lapin, a doctor of internal medicine and the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.
The urgency to renovate came to a head three years ago when doctors made a series of videos about the decrepit state of the ER and posted them online.
Two weeks later doctors Francois Langlais and Tony Assouline pulled their videos from the web as then-health minister Yves Bolduc announced a $34 million makeover for the emergency room.
"It should probably have been renovated or rebuilt years ago." said Health Minister Gaetan Barrette, who even described the state of the ER as problematic 20 years ago, when he worked there.
“It was really, really, really, really, really bad,” he said.
He said that the Liberal government actually began planning the renovations a decade ago, but could have started long before.
"The very answer to what you're asking is in what way could we have kept going with the previous installations for very long, the answer is no," said Barrette.
The hospital's ER is now 3,000 square-metres larger with three new examination rooms, making for a total of ten exam rooms and space for 14 patients on gurneys.
The workspace is now four times larger and has been updated with new materials and conforms to new standards for security and infection prevention.
“We should be able to provide not just excellent medicare, but to do it an environment that respects the privacy and dignity of the patients,” said Lapin.
Yves Masse, LaSalle Hospital’s director general, said the makeover can also help in attracting staff.
“With new facilities, that helps with the recruitment of new people,” said Masse.
An entrance has also been added that is fully accessible for those using wheelchairs.
