A Short History of the Royal Edward Institute

The history of a tuberculosis hospital in Montreal. In 1903, the hospital was founded as the Anti-Tubercular League of Montreal in response to the terrible tuberculosis epidemic that was claiming 12,000 lives a year in Quebec. Its dispensary was established in November 1904, and three doctors worked six days a week, making 900 consultations and 110 home visits in its first year of operation. Five years later, the Royal Edward Institute was established "for the study, prevention and cure of tuberculosis." It quickly became one of Canada's foremost hospitals specializing solely in respiratory diseases. The Institute provided public education initiatives and school programs as well as hospital services for tuberculosis patients. In 1911, the region's first sanatorium opened in the Laurentian mountain village of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, with 45 beds, servicing those afflicted with pulmonary tuberculosis and sharing some of the patient load of the Royal Edward Institute. In 1930, the Royal Edward Institute moved its facilities to the Montreal Chest Institute's St. Urbain Street address. Within the following two years, it was officially recognized as a McGill University affiliated teaching hospital. A decade later, the Royal Edward Institute and the sanatorium joined to become the Royal Edward Laurentian Hospital. By 1957, the facilities in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts were closed and the construction of a new sanatorium began. In 1963, the Royal Edward Laurentian Hospital divided into two separate institutions: the Royal Edward Hospital in Montreal, and the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. In 1969, the Royal Edward began treating cystic fibrosis patients and, in 1971, changed its name to the Montreal Chest Hospital Centre. In 1994, it merged with the Royal Victoria Hospital to become the Montreal Chest Institute of the RVH. Today the Montreal Chest Hospital is part of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).

Montreal

Royal Edward Institute

1965

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