Burst water pipe forces temporary closure of part of Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital ER

A burst water pipe at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital forced the temporary closure of a section of its emergency room Friday afternoon, resulting in the displacement of more than a dozen patients and the redirection of ambulances.

A video filmed inside the hospital and sent to Radio-Canada shows a large amount of water pouring from the ceiling of the unit, with hospital scrubs on the floor being used to mop up the water.

In another video, hospital workers can be seen cleaning and pumping out water.

Some 20 patients from the ER had to be moved to other parts of the hospital and one patient was relocated to another hospital.

Christian Merciari, a spokesperson for the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, said the patients were not in any danger and the situation was slated to return to normal later in the evening.

A water damage restoration team spent most of Friday night working and will be back Saturday to finish the job and complete contamination work. 

Patients have also gradually begun returning to the ER, Merciari said. 

The cause of the pipe breakage is not known at the time. Firefighters and police were on site to inspect the damage.

The Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital has been waiting years for a major modernization project promised by the Quebec government to materialize.

In September 2021, Health Minister Christian Dubé authorized a $2.5 billion budget to expand and redevelop the hospital, which had become dilapidated and too small to serve the population of Montreal's east end.

The project included a total of 720 hospital beds, up from the current 450, 180,000 square metres of new and modernized space, a 22,500 square metre off-site building to house food services, a pharmacy, storage and the distribution of supplies, as well as the creation of 2,600 additional parking spaces.

The Maisonneuve-Rosemont site currently consists of some 15 buildings, some of which have already reached a significant level of disrepair.

However, inflation and supply chain problems in the construction industry have caused costs to skyrocket, according to a financial analysis by the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), which estimated that the budget would be grossly insufficient to complete the extensive renovations.

In February, the mayor of Montreal implored the provincial government for clarity on the future of the hospital.