CAQ announces first privately owned ‘mini hospital’ would be built in Montreal’s east end

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The Coalition Avenir Québec envisions opening one-stop store medical centres all through the province — owned and operated by the personal sector — however paid by the general public purse.

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CAQ Chief François Legault made the announcement in considerably hostile territory Saturday as his marketing campaign dipped a toe on the island of Montreal, the place his celebration holds solely two seats.

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Regardless of that, the east finish of the town could be the primary space to get a mini hospital, in addition to the Limoilou space of Quebec Metropolis.

Talking with reporters on the Bibliothèque Jean-Corbeil in Anjou, Legault outlined his celebration’s plan to enhance entry to household medication exterior of hospitals by opening household medication centres, known as Groupes de médecine familiales (GMFs). Standing alongside Legault, outgoing Well being Minister Christian Dubé dubbed the centres “mini hospitals” and defined they’d be privately owned and constructed, however publicly funded, so they’d be free for the final inhabitants, paid for with the RAMQ card.

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The household medication centres, estimated to price $35 million every to construct, could be open seven days per week from 8 a.m. to eight p.m., they’d supply emergency medical providers 24 hours per day for minor instances, and they might have day surgical procedure centres. They might additionally home pharmacies, check centres and radiology labs.

The 2 first centres could be constructed by 2025, and are anticipated to take a few of the slack from overburdened hospitals.

Dubé stated the outcome can be higher affected person care, and reduction for the hospital community. He stated the japanese a part of the island was chosen as a result of the present well being providers are inadequate, leading to an overcrowded Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital. He added it may enable hospitals to scale back the ready lists for surgical procedures

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“There’s an entire snowball impact to all of this,” he stated. “The sooner we settle minor instances, the faster we are able to let the surgeons within the giant hospitals to do surgical procedures and whittle down the ready checklist.”

With two elected members on the island of Montreal and one in Laval, Legault stated it’s time for the metropolis to elect extra CAQ MNAs.

“Individuals in Montreal and Laval have been taken as a right for too lengthy,” he stated. “I believe it’s about time that we give attention to the east of Montreal. We have to have nearly as good providers because the West Island, so I believe it’s time to see extra CAQ MNAs.”

Legault stated Chantal Rouleau, the MNA for Pointe-aux-Trembles, has nicely represented her driving. As junior transport minister, she oversaw the start of labor to prolong the métro’s Blue Line by 5.5 kilometres to Anjou.

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The CAQ authorities additionally spearheaded a undertaking to construct an above-ground light-rail community within the east finish, dubbed the REM de l’Est. The undertaking, nevertheless, was shelved due to complaints about its inflated price estimate (almost $10 billion) and its potential to scar the town’s city panorama with overhead concrete rail constructions.

Legault is aware of he has angered some minority teams, particularly within the Montreal area with the introductions of the language legislation, Invoice 96, and the legislation towards spiritual clothes, Invoice 21, however hopes they are going to vote for his celebration anyway.

“I believe these persons are proud of what we did with the economic system, well being care and training,” Legault stated. “Some individuals nonetheless would favor to have a bilingual province of Quebec or metropolis of Montreal. I wish to specific to them that French will at all times be weak in Montreal and Quebec due to the presence of 300 million anglophones in North America, so please don’t take solely into consideration the language points. I believe it’s necessary for anglophones, for allophones, for everyone to take the very best celebration for the economic system, training, well being care and the setting. So I believe language should not be the one situation.”

Later within the day, Legault visited celebration militants within the Vaudreuil—Dorion space earlier than visiting a farm in Sherrington and a winery in Coteau-du-Lac earlier than wrapping the day up in Longueuil.

jmagder@postmedia.com

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