Montreal

Hôtel-Dieu hospital patients make the trip to the CHUM

The first patients were sent on their way a little after 7 a.m. They are making the roughly 2.5-kilometre trip by ambulance or in Medicar adapted transport vehicles.

About 50 patients will be transported to new French superhospital in phase 2 of the move

About 50 patients were transferred via ambulance or adapted transport vehicles from Hôtel-Dieu hospital to the new CHUM superhospital. (Conrad Fournie/Radio-Canada)

A new wave of patients have now taken up residence in the CHUM, Montreal's French-language superhospital.

The first patients from Hôtel-Dieu hospital on St-Urbain Street were sent on their way a little after 7 a.m. They made the roughly 2.5-kilometre trip in one of 12 ambulances or in a Medicar adapted transport vehicle to the CHUM, which is on Sanguinet Street.

About 50 patients were moved, including six in the intensive care unit, and 225 employees helped with the transfer.

It took about three hours to complete the move.

Hôtel-Dieu's emergency room was permanently closed at 5 a.m. Sunday. In the coming days, the hospital will be cleaned, disinfected, and officially closed, said Irène Marcheterre, communications director for the superhospital.

While the building will no longer house a hospital, there will still be external clinics there for the next four years.

Patients from Saint-Luc hospital made the move to the new CHUM building last month, and those at Notre-Dame hospital will move later this month.
An ambulance transporting a patient from Hôtel-Dieu hospital arrives at the CHUM. The French superhospital features three 25-storey buildings and 772 rooms. (Radio-Canada)

With files from Radio-Canada's Mélissa François