Quebec hospital funding questioned as aging health-care infrastructure persists

Many Quebec hospitals are working with old technology in what many staff members describe as decrepit buildings.

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’t go far enough to modernize the province’s facilities. 

“We have experienced leaks, insects. I mean, it’s terrible,” said Jean-Pierre Pelage, head of radiology at Montreal General Hospital. “We were supposed to receive ministry funding for these rooms, but the funding has been reduced or cancelled.”

Pelage says the hospital’s decades-old angiography rooms consistently cause disruptions.

“One is from 2004. The other one is from 2011. So 15 and 25 years respectively,” Pelage explained.

Those machines, which used to image blood vessels and organs, are so old that one shuts down every month.

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.

But after Quebec’s newest budget was passed on Wednesday, they say they’re out of luck.

“It seems that MGH is not included,” said Pelage.

Even hospitals included in the budget say progress isn’t guaranteed. It’s the case for Montreal’s Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, which still hasn’t been given the green light for long-promised renovations.

“They 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,” said Dr. François Marquis, the head of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.

The hospital’s 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.

“Obviously, it’s a way to make sure you’re not going to make it to the finish line in time,” said Dr. Marquis.

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.

“This is very, very important for us because, as I said, you know, we have been 20 years planning for a new infrastructure,” said Gustavo Turecki, the scientific director at Douglas Mental Health University Institute.

Opposition critics say the issue isn’t just funding — but a pattern of projects getting stuck in planning, driving up costs.

“It doesn’t mean that they will move to another step. And that’s why we have so many problems,” said Monsef Derraji, the official opposition critic for health with the Quebec Liberal Party.

As delays continue, staff say they’re making it work as best they can, despite the conditions.

“MGH is actually number one in Quebec because of the expertise of the humans,” said Pelage. “But where we work is really obsolete.”

Marquis added, “We have those really incredible expertise, but at the same time, working in the worst place ever.”