It was a full political house on hand to officially inaugurate the CHUM superhospital on Sunday, which was unveiled to much fanfare from elected officials despite being nearly a year overdue.
The new site holds 772 beds, 400 exam rooms, 39 operating rooms, and an emergency room that will see roughly 65,000 visits per year, according to hospital officials.
As of October 8, patients will be transferred from St. Luc Hospital to the three, 25-storey buildings on the CHUM site.
Patients from Hotel Dieu Hospital and Notre Dame Hospital will follow in November.
The hospital was delivered on budget at $3.6 billion, but delays during construction and issues with mould held up the inauguration for 11 months.
The consortium that built the hopsital is also facing legal action, with one of the subcontractors involved in construction claiming the company has not been paid for its work, and is owed at least $52.6 million.
“In a project of this scale, it’s normal to have lawsuits over a few million, but we’re trying to resolve it as we speak,”Health Minister Gaetan Barrette.
Among the state-of-the-art techonologies implented into patient care at the new superhospital are robotic carts that deliver food, laundry and medicine to patients.
“It enables the hospital staff to focus on their job so they don't have to do the manual movements themselves,” said Keith Richards of Oceaneering International.
Premier Philippe Couillard, Quebec Health Minister Barrette, former Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre were among the dignitaries on hand to tour the CHUM for its inauguration.
Couillard called it among the largest and most most modern university hospital complexes in North America.