Nunavik board confirms Mtl. patient home move
“Patient security is our priority”
It's official: the temporary home for patients and escorts from Nunavik will be three floors of the Y residence at 4039 Tupper in Westmount, not far from the Atwater Metro station, a gathering point for Inuit in Montreal. (PHOTO/ GOOGLE MAPS).
The Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services announced March 2 that, as of April 9, the Module du Nord patient services offices, along with patients and escorts sent down for health care in Montreal, will move from St. Jacques St. into the YMCA “Y” Residence at 4039 Tupper St. in Westmount.
There, Nunavik will take over three floors, which will hold offices, 150 beds, a cafeteria service and laundry facilities.
The move consolidates all the services of the Module du Nord and Nunavik House under one roof, although a boarding home, called Chez Gigi et Michèle, will continue offering lodging to pregnant women who experience complications during their pregnancy.
“Patient security is our priority,” said Alasie Arngak, chairperson of the regional health board’s board of directors.
The “Y” enjoys greater security, said the regional health board in its March 2 news release.
The YMCA’s residence has its own guards and there will also security guards posted on three floors occupied by Nunavimmiut.
The guards will stay on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each person staying or working at the facility will be registered and their access will be controlled, the news release said.
At the same time, the regional health board continues its search for a permanent home: the YMCA’s Y Residence remains a temporary short- and medium-term solution, the news release said.
Plans to transform a vacant Chinese hospital in the Villeray borough of Montreal were abandoned last September after months of sometime angry disputes with Anie Samson, the mayor of Villeray, and others in the borough who said they did not want an Inuit patient boarding home in their neighbourhood.
