Subhead:The federal government anticipates spending roughly $7 million this fiscal year for the upkeep of four barely used portable hospitals.#
The federal government anticipates spending roughly $7 million this fiscal year for the upkeep of four barely used portable hospitals. These custom-made facilities, intended to aid overwhelmed hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, cost taxpayers over $200 million to acquire.
Access to Information documents show that the costly, complex Mobile Health Units (MHUs) are proving difficult and slow to dismantle.
Ottawa has been trying to sell or donate them since last year, with GCSurplus planning to empty warehouses of these assets by September 2025, according to the same documents.
In 2020, Ottawa ordered two pandemic hospital units, with Ontario requesting two more in 2021. The latter two units, sent to Sunnybrook and Hamilton Health Sciences during the second wave, were not used for critical overflow, according to a 2021 media report.
Each pandemic hospital unit needs 588 tractor-trailers of space and constant electricity for medicine refrigeration. Full deployment takes about seven weeks, and relocation requires 75 transport trucks per unit.
They now reside in storage, costing the federal government millions annually for upkeep, including an estimated $8.4 million over the next 12 to 18 months.
