Many Quebec hospitals are working with old technology in what many staff members describe as decrepit buildings.<\/p>\n
While the province has announced an investment of $3.6 billion for healthcare over the next ten years in its new budget, some say the plan doesn\u2019t go far enough to modernize the province\u2019s facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have experienced leaks, insects. I mean, it\u2019s terrible,\u201d said Jean-Pierre Pelage, head of radiology at Montreal General Hospital. \u201cWe were supposed to receive ministry funding for these rooms, but the funding has been reduced or cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pelage says the hospital\u2019s decades-old angiography rooms consistently cause disruptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne is from 2004. The other one is from 2011.\u00a0So 15 and 25 years respectively,\u201d Pelage explained.<\/p>\n
Those machines, which used to image blood vessels and organs, are so old that one shuts down every month.<\/p>\n
Replacements have already been purchased, but installing them comes with a $15 million price tag, which is funding that the hospital is still waiting on.<\/p>\n
But after Quebec\u2019s newest budget was passed on Wednesday, they say they\u2019re out of luck.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that MGH is not included,\u201d said Pelage.<\/p>\n
Even hospitals included in the budget say progress isn\u2019t guaranteed. It\u2019s the case for Montreal\u2019s Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, which still hasn\u2019t been given the green light for long-promised renovations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have like a graveyard zone where you are actually included in the plan, but you still can be modified, adapted, changed, you know, put it the way you want, but usually it means being cut,\u201d said Dr. Fran\u00e7ois Marquis, the head of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.<\/p>\n
The hospital\u2019s officials say every month of delay adds roughly $10 million due to the cost due to inflation, with past projects already pushed back by last-minute government changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s a way to make sure you\u2019re not going to make it to the finish line in time,\u201d said Dr. Marquis.<\/p>\n
The same also goes for the Douglas Mental Health Institute, whose aging infrastructure forced a research wing to shut down due to asbestos concerns following burst pipes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very, very important for us because, as I said, you know, we have been 20 years planning for a new infrastructure,\u201d said Gustavo Turecki, the scientific director at Douglas Mental Health University Institute.<\/p>\n
Opposition critics say the issue isn\u2019t just funding \u2014 but a pattern of projects getting stuck in planning, driving up costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that they will move to another step.\u00a0And that\u2019s why we have so many problems,\u201d said Monsef Derraji, the official opposition critic for health with the Quebec Liberal Party.<\/p>\n
As delays continue, staff say they\u2019re making it work as best they can, despite the conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMGH is actually number one in Quebec because of the expertise of the humans,\u201d said Pelage. \u201cBut where we work is really obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marquis added, \u201cWe have those really incredible expertise, but at the same time, working in the worst place ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many Quebec hospitals are working with old technology in what many staff members describe as decrepit buildings. While…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-550068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}