(CBC News) — Several years after opening, in the midst of an ongoing overcrowding crisis in Montreal’s emergency rooms, the city’s two university superhospitals still aren’t making all their beds available.
The exact reason for the unused beds depends on who you ask. The hospitals say it’s a funding issue, but Quebec’s health minister says it’s primarily a labour shortage problem.
At the end of 2019, there were over 70 unavailable beds at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), out of a total of 772, Radio-Canada has learned. Another 22 beds were not available for use at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), out of 500 in total.
In a written response to Radio-Canada’s questions about its unused beds, the CHUM said the empty beds are only 85 per cent funded.
An MUHC spokesperson said that when the hospital opened in 2015, funding existed to make 471 beds available out of 500. Since then, new funds allowed the opening of seven additional beds: two in palliative care in early 2018 and five critical care beds in 2019-2020. (…)