Patients and healthcare professionals are contesting the scheduled closing of a gynecological clinic in Lachine.
Two weeks ago officials at the McGill University Health Centre announced the clinic would close on April 1 and that patients would have to find a gynecologist at the Lasalle Hospital.
On Thursday, a The Gazette report stated three doctors and two patients filed an application for an injunction in Quebec Superior Court. The complainants argued that the closure of the clinic poses a threat to the health of women in Lachine and Dorval.
Council of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists of Lachine Hospital chair Paul Saba said he believes the Lachine Hospital doesn’t have enough resources to accommodate the influx of patients from the Lachine clinic.
Each year, the clinic does roughly 700 consultations.
MUHC officials said the Lachine Hospital’s mission would be to focus more on healthcare for men, who Lasalle’s hospital would focus more on women and that the decision was made in 2014.
Saba said the decision included a consolidation of men’s care in Lachine, but not the closure of the clinic and that he believes the closure is due to financial reasons.
MUHC management said the court filing did not change its intent to close the clinic.
Last June the Quebec government allocated $95 million to the Lachine Hospital for the construction of a new building that will house emergency units, intensive care units, daycare centres, medicine and surgery units and palliative care. Work is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2020 and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2023.
