Province supports proceeding with mega-hospital plan
Health ministry gives go-ahead for second phase at former Grace site
While the provincial government under Premier Doug Ford is seemingly pulling the plug on many projects and programs across Ontario, Windsor’s $2-billion mega-hospital plan has officially received the go-ahead to proceed to the next stage.
“We had our first official call post-election last week,” said David Musyj, CEO for Windsor Regional Hospital. “It was a positive call. We continued from where we were in May right before the election. Now we will start working through the details and moving the project forward.
“There was no indication whatsoever by the ministry of any changes.”
The mega-hospital plan, which features a new acute care hospital off County Road 42, has been approved to enter stage two by the health ministry.
The plan also includes building an urgent-care centre at the former Grace hospital site, moving 60 acute-care mental health beds to the Tayfour site on Prince Road and having Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare take over Windsor Regional’s Ouellette Avenue site for outpatient mental health care services and chronic-disease management. “The heavy lifting starts now,” Musyj said.
“This is when we get deep into the functional programs. “This is where we design exactly how the various programs in the hospital are to be operated, how many beds there will be and the staffing needs.” Although the Ford government came to power in June, it has taken some time for new provincial government staff members under Ford to be appointed and then get up to speed on the city’s hospital plan, he said.
“Since the Liberals had been in government for so long you have a dramatic change in government,” Musyj said. “It’s taken awhile for them to get familiar with our file and maybe 500 other files. A new deputy minister was just appointed a few weeks ago.
“But now we can start progressing along the path.”
The heavy lifting starts now. This is when we get deep into the functional programs.