Care system RAMQ (Quebec medicare) Hospital type Teaching | Funding Public hospital Founded 1908 | |
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Location 1058, rue Saint-Denis
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H2X 3J4 Affiliated university Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine | ||
Hôpital Saint-Luc is a hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the intersection of Saint Denis Street and René Lévesque Boulevard in the borough of Ville-Marie. It is named in honor of Luke the Evangelist, who is the patron saint of doctors in the Roman Catholicism.
History
Hôpital Saint-Luc was founded in 1908 by Dr. F.A. Fleury and was originally located in a private home at 88 Saint Denis Street.
The hospital was located in the poorest neighborhood of Montreal. The founder, Dr. F. A. Fleury wanted to treat children in need. Hôpital Saint-Luc had a mission to accept, without any discrimination, any person requiring care.
In 1912, hospital officials required the assistance of the City of Montreal to pay the salaries of its dentists. During the years of Great Depression following the 1929 stock market crash, agreements with the city provided a number of beds to be constantly available to the homeless patients collected by the police in addition to both domestic and foreign sailors from the Port of Montreal. In exchange, the city and the Government of Canada compensated the hospital for each visit or hospitalization. These new modes of cooperation were precursors to universal access to medical care.
Hôpital Saint-Luc was notably the first hospital to offer 24-hour emergency services regardless of ethnic, linguistic or religious identity. The hospital was specialized since its founding in the fields of Otolaryngology, Ophthalmology, dentistry and clinical venereal disease.
Over the years, the need for hospitalization become increasingly urgent In 1928 the small hospital was inaugurated, increasing the capacity from 9 to 89 beds. A chain of successive expansions took place thereafter, allowing Hôpital Saint-Luc to today offer a total of 814 beds.
On October 1, 1996, Hôpital Saint-Luc signed a memorandum of understanding that made it one of the three hospitals belonging to the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal network.