“Save Lachine Hospital” Committee Launched

Once a vibrant general hospital, the building at 3320 Notre-Dame west in Lachine now lies mostly empty with its mission unclear. The facility is one of many governed by the cash-strapped Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle (CSSS).

No one in Lachine wants Saint-Joseph’s, which is celebrating its centenary this year, to go the way of its English cousin. Yet that’s what stands to happen as donations drop, staff ask for transfers and Health Minister Réjean Hebert does nothing until the CSSS reports back to him by May.

That’s why local leaders, including: François Ouimet, the MNA for Marquette; Claude Dauphin, the mayor of Lachine; Edgar Rouleau, the mayor of Dorval; and Jacques Filion, chairman of the Lachine Hospital Foundation’s board of directors launched a new “Save the Lachine Hospital” group two weeks ago.

They are collecting signatures in their offices and at local libraries and community centres. They also want people to direct social media at Minister Réjean Hebert. They want Hebert to change his mind and let the Saint-Joseph-de-Lachine Hospital stay within the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) network instead of being reintegrated into the CSSS. “We’ll bang pots and pans if we have to,” said François Ouimet, the MNA for Marquette.Ouimet says that hospital leaders feel a great kinship to the MUHC and its members for years of support. Neither the CSSS nor CHUM responded when we cried out for help in 2005, he said. Only the Jewish General spoke up for us then. When our emergency was threatened in 2006, the community stood up and helped, but no one in the health sector cared. In 2007, the CSSS wanted to transform our entire hospital into a giant medical centre. “We wouldn’t even exist now, if they got their way. We walked the streets then, and we’ll do it again.”

Paul Saba, who grew up in Lachine and practiced medicine in the U.S., and at St. Mary’s prior to joining St. Joseph’s in 2004, says that no matter what happens, the Government of Quebec must honour the $66 million in promised infrastructure money they agreed to provide three years ago.

“There has been delay after delay since the money was promised to us in 2009,” said Saba, who heads the organization representing 65 active Lachine Hospital doctors and another 60 medical associates. “We are the only Francophone hospital on the West Island. We’re a smaller hospital, but we’re essential to our community. We’re asking the minister to do what’s best for the hospital. We’re saying to the leadership of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC): you say we’re a priority, put your words into concrete action. Give us local governance to ensure that our hospital can move ahead on its own projects.”

Saba has been delivering his message internally to the MUHC for months. He also met with Minister Hebert in November with the same demands. Instead of extra funds, the MUHC asked Lachine to cut 10 of their 50 long-term care beds. That decision was reversed by Hebert last week, but his heroism was quickly overshadowed when an earlier request to transfer the Lachine Hospital from the MUHC to the CSSS went public. Saba is confident that that decision too will be reconsidered.

Note: This article appeared in The Suburban on January 16.