Allyson Beauregard
Allyson Beauregard
MRC PONTIAC – After Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette announced the long-awaited Dialysis Unit at the Pontiac Community Hospital (PCH) would be installed “within months” at a press conference this past June, Pontiac MNA Andre Fortin now says the project is right on track for being operational in summer 2018, ten years after fundraising for the project first began.
The engineer’s plans to renovate the PCH’s vacant administrative wing to house the unit are expected to be complete by Christmas, with the tendering process to follow in early January. After the tender is awarded in February or March, construction and the 6-8 weeks of staff training at the dialysis unit in Hull will take place simultaneously.
At least five dialysis stations will be moved from the Hull hospital and relocated to the PCH. The new treatment unit will be able to accommodate up to thirty patients and will create between 5 and 7 jobs. According to Fortin, the unit will meet today’s needs for dialysis treatment in the Pontiac as well as projected needs over the next ten years. There are currently 13 Pontiac residents receiving dialysis; they must travel long distances to urban centres, three times a week, to receive treatment.
The province provided $2,130,700 to the Centre integre de sante et de services sociaux d’Outaouais (CISSSO) to create the satellite hemodialysis unit at the PCH. The approximate $949,000 in annual operation costs will be largely funded by a budget transfer from the Hull Hospital ($599,000), while the remaining $350,000 will be covered by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. In the last ten years, the Pontiac Hospital Foundation has raised over $650,000 to contribute.
