As staffing shortage persists, plans to modernize Montreal's Lachine Hospital are underway

Plans to modernize and expand the Lachine Hospital in Montreal are coming together, but the council of physicians at the hospital is warning that theyshould not delay efforts to hire more staff and get services back up and running normally.

Construction for a new building is slated to begin in May and end in 2025.

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) says the estimated $200-million project will be state of the art, modern and a much-needed facelift on the hospital, which was built more than 100 years ago.

The project is expected to getunderway as the hospital continues to dealwith a staffing shortage one that forced its emergency room to close overnight in November and eventually start redirecting ambulances completely.

As of Monday, paramedics are now able to transport patients to the emergency room between 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., seven days a week. The emergency room reopened at night onJan. 24, but only for those arriving on foot. The ICU remains closed.

The MUHC's director of technical services says the hope is the update does more than just bring the hospital into the 21st century.

"We hope that this project will allow us to be more attractive to hire personnel. It's pretty hard to adapt an old building to today's standards,"saidPierre-Marc Legris.

The council of physicians at LachineHospital says although the modernization project is a big win, officials should not wait until it is complete to increase efforts to bring in more staff.

"It all goes hand in hand," said Dr.Paul Saba, president of the council of physicians at Lachine Hospital. Hehas saidthe medical facility must return to the way it was before the partial shut down, andin order to do that,there's a pressing need to hire more staff.

"We need to address the issue of the respiratory therapists and getting the ICU open. We need to address recruiting more and retaining our nurses."

In a statement, the MUHC says it's actively working to recruit respiratory therapists and nurses so services can be fully restored, with the modernization project hopefully playing a big part in that.

New building will house ER, ICU, new ORs

In a first public information meeting Monday on the project, officials explained the building will go up on the south side of the hospital along Saint-Antoine Street, facing the LaSalle park. The plan is for it to house the emergency room, the ICU and other units.

The project will also add more single-patient rooms and new operating rooms.

Lachine Mayor Maja Vodanovicsays she'll celebrate when the project breaks ground, saying the people in Lachine have been fighting to keep their community hospital open for "years and years and years."

"People walk to it ... a lot of elderly people who do not have cars, a lot of vulnerable people also walk in," she said.

Vodanovicsays she also sees the modernization ofthe hospital as a way to help attract staff.

"We're missing nurses, we're missing doctors, health-care professionals ...we need to have more of them," she said, adding it's time to start opening emergency rooms rather than closing them.

"For sure this will be an attractive point[for more personnel]. Everything will be better."