Jewish General Hospital gets $200 million to renovate patient rooms

Jewish General to undergo facelift Health Minister Gaetan Barrette was on-hand at the $200 million announcement, intended to upgrade patient rooms.

Patients at the Jewish General Hospital will soon have a little more privacy and a lot less crowding when staying overnight.

The provincial government is giving the hospital $200 million as part of its multi-year renovation to eliminate three- and four-patient rooms and double overall space.

Two years ago the Jewish General Hospital inaugurated its K pavilion, a $430 million critical care wing and when it opened certain units in the hospital were moved, freeing up space that will be transformed over the next five years.

The renovations will change older rooms into new private or semi-private rooms, capable of housing one or two patients in state-of-the-art facilities.

Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said the work is necessary, but cannot proceed any faster because of how busy the JGH can be.

"It will take time because we're going to have to go step by step, one area after the other, and it's a domino effect. You renovate one part and then you move patients from one to the other and so on. So this is a project that will take a number of years and that is because we do not want to reduce the services in the meantime," said Barrette.

Several hospitals in the Montreal area are going to be undergoing renovations in the next several years.

Last week Barrette promised $90 million over the next five years to work on the Lakeshore General Hospital, and earlier in April he promised $130 million to renovate Charles LeMoyne hospital.

Finance Minister Carlos Leitao admitted the timing does coincide with the upcoming election, but added the funding is only possible because of his government's work to eliminate the provincial deficit and reduce the debt.