As Royal Victoria prepares move, MUHC says problems will be fixed

It's the beginning of the end for the Royal Victoria Hospital -- the patients will start moving into the Glen site April 26.

The countdown is on to April 26, the day hundreds of patients will move out of the Royal Victoria Hospital and into the new Glen site.

The planning team is hoping to move one patient every three minutes. Before they can be moved, offices, equipment and some staff will begin the migration to the new Royal Vic at the Glen, a process that begins this week.

The Glen activation project is two years in the making, and began when the research institute started moving to the new site last October.

Since then, employees have flagged about 3,000 “non-conformity deficiencies,” or bugs, since moving over.

“Access cards at the beginning, lights, you know everything you find when you get in a new house. It's a simple as that,” said Michele Lortie, Glen site activation manager.

One of the problems is a call bell system that nurses have said isn't loud enough to signal them during a code blue.

Lortie said all the problems are being fixed and everything will be working fully for the 26, when the Royal Victoria’s emergency room will close at 5 a.m.

The first patients, including those in critical care, will begin the move with the help of 29 ambulances at 7.a.m. The last patient is expected to reach the new hospital by 3 p.m.

“On that day our nursing ratios will be higher to account for any needs we have on that day,” said Dr. Jean-Marc Troquet, chief of emergency at the MUHC.

A month later, on May 24, the Montreal Children's Hospital will follow a similar protocol.

“We'll expect that our neo-natal will take the longest and expect to be finished between noon and two,” said Barbara Izzard, associated director of nursing at the Montreal Children's Hospital.

But despite all of the careful planning and confidence, not everyone at the Vic is happy. Dr. David Morris has been working at there for 28 years and said though we often feel that what’s new is always what’s best, tradition and the feeling of an institution is important too.

“This hospital has produced some of the most important advances in medicine. Technology didn’t do it, people did it, spirit did it and that’s what I mourn for. I’m sure it will not be destroyed completely in the new building, I just mourn the loss of an extraordinary monument to medical care,” he said.