MONTREAL - St. Mary's Hospital will be souped up with more private rooms and other amenities, authorities announced Monday.
The province is putting in $30 million into upgrades at the hospital, while the hospital's foundation will inject $8.2 million into the renos, which include the addition of two-storeys on Pavilion D.
The renovations will translate into far more private beds.
Currently many rooms are shared by up to four patients but after the facelift is completed, 60 percent of the rooms will be private and the rest semi-private.
The number of actual beds, 271, will remain unchanged.
The increase of private rooms will have some health upside, as it will decrease the chance of infection and allow more space for staffers to tend to patients.
Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc was on hand for the announcement Monday.
"When you have four patients in a room it increases the possibility of getting infection," he said. "We know that with private or semi-private rooms we decrease the probability of getting an infection. It's a norm that we want to have in every hospital in Quebec."
Quebec is also offering Quebec hospitals $4 million to expand emergency rooms to reduce overcrowding. Some of that money will be used to upgrade emergency facilities at St. Mary's over the next 18 months.
