Hearings begin into future of Lachine Hospital

Many Montrealers are worried that Lachine Hospital might be transformed into an outpatient and rehab centre.

The hospital board for the LaSalle and Vieux Lachine hospitals wants to concentrate emergency services at the LaSalle Hospital.

• FROM AUG. 13, 2004: Lachine Hospital might convert to geriatric centre

It says the changes would benefit all residents who use the hospitals, and save millions of dollars.

Critics say the change would drastically reduce services, especially to those who live in Lachine.

Many doctors and other staff members are against the changes, according to Dr. Paul Saba, head of the council of physicians at the Lachine hospital.

"This is going to have a disastrous effect. They're going to take out the essentials of what makes a community hospital," Saba said Tuesday.

It's the community feel of the hospital that has many insisting that the Lachine Hospital keep its current status.

Lachine's Catholic community built the hospital, initially known as St-Joseph, in 1913. The facility was re-named the Centre hospitalier de Lachine in 1974.

"Lachine hospital for me, it's like the community. You go there, it's like you're treated as though it's your house," said Daniel Lefebvre, whose 82-year-old father recently spent five weeks at the Lachine Hospital.

He says the treatment there saved his father's life, and that his father had speedy treatment in the emergency room.

Lefebvre worries wait times will be longer if emergency traffic is diverted to LaSalle. He says he once had to wait eight or nine hours to be seen in the emergency room there. "Close the one in Lachine, how much is it going to be?" he wonders.

Two more evenings of hearings are set for LaSalle and Dorval.

A report from the hearings will be presented to the hospital board, which will make its final decision on the Lachine hospital in June.