After a series of delays, CHUM superhospital finally ready to receive patients
Complexe on Sanguinet Street was officially inaugurated Sunday
Montreal's newest superhospital, the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), was inaugurated Sunday with a tour for politicians, including Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard.
The $3-billion complex located behind the Hôpital Saint-Luc downtown will absorb patients in the French-language teaching hospital network, which also includes Notre-Dame and Hôtel Dieu.
This comes about a year after the project was initially slated to be finished, with the first patients set to be transferred from Saint-Luc to the CHUM the first week of October.
The Hôpital Saint-Luc is slated to be demolished.
"Designed to meet the highest standards of medical practice, it will provide care that is even more focused on patients' needs, on top of its role in stimulating the research that will provide our next generation with state-of-the-art training," Couillard said.
Plans to build the hospital began 20 years ago, but the project experienced a series of delays.
The new hospital, built in a public-private partnership, consists of three buildings lining Sanguinet Street, each 25 storeys high and including a total of 772 rooms.
The buildings include therapeutic and diagnostic services, and emergency as well as clinical and support services, such as labs, a pharmacy and blood bank.
Provincial Health Minister Gaétan Barrette said the hospital is a gift Quebec society is giving itself.
"It's giving itself the means to its clinical ambitions, and today we're inaugurating the achievement of that ambition," he said.
"The new CHUM will provide a world-class learning environment for the 5,000 university and college students and trainees, working in all areas of health," said Quebec's Higher Education Minister Hélène David.
Another two groups of patients will be brought to the hospital Nov. 5 and Nov. 26, from Hôtel-Dieu and Saint-Luc, respectively.
with files from Radio-Canada