NEW HOSPITAL WINS SUPPORT
Health minister weighing urgent care options
Minister of Health Dr. Eric Hoskins confirmed Friday the province has budgeted to build a new mega-hospital in Windsor, but the Grace-site Urgent Care component remains up for negotiation.
Hoskins made the announcement at the Ouellette Campus of Windsor Regional Hospital before heading out to visit the site opposite Windsor Airport where the new facility will be built.
Requests for quotes on constructing the new $2-billion hospital will be issued in 2021.
“The government has absolutely committed to the investment necessary for creating a new hospital that will serve the population of both Windsor and Essex and also to replace aging facilities and provide state-of-the-art equipment,” Hoskins said.
“There are a lot layers to this, but two things are for sure. Windsor-Essex is getting a new hospital and the government has committed to make that happen.”
However, before the government commits to spending $150-million on the Grace-site Urgent Care facility, the province is asking local health-care leaders to examine whether the Ouellette Campus of Windsor Regional Hospital could be upgraded as an urgent care centre and a site for daytime surgeries on an interim basis.
The province is looking to get the most use out of a site that had its operating rooms upgraded in 2000 before contemplating moving services elsewhere.
“That’s part of the conversations we’re having between the ministry, the local LHIN as well as the hospitals,” Hoskins said. “It speaks to maintaining necessary health services to those that reside in the downtown core.
“There are many downtown facilities that exist and we’re looking at how they may be repurposed to ensure the necessary services are provided. That will be the conversation in the months ahead.”
Windsor Regional Hospital CEO/president David Musyj said Windsor is in a similar situation to Humber Hospital that reduced three sites to one.
Humber initially used an older site for urgent care, but eventually moved those services to the new building.
“You have to remember the biggest chunk (75 per cent) is for the hospital,” Musyj said. “What we’re talking about is the 25 per cent and what’s that going to look like.
“Whether that’s to re-invest here at the Ouellette Campus for the interim basis and have urgent care here before a possible move to the Grace site. How would that work on this site?
“We have to look at that compared to moving immediately to Grace.”
Musyj said regardless of what direction the Ministry chooses in the interim basis, urgent care will continue to be offered in the downtown core.
Hoskins also expressed support for the concept of a regional Centre for Excellence for Mental Health based at Hotel Dieu- Grace Healthcare’s Tayfour Campus.
The plan calls for 60 acute care mental health beds to be added at Hotel Dieu-Grace Healthcare’s Tayfour Campus along with the centralization of most mental health-care services.
There would also be a research component on-site through the Schulich Medical School.
Hotel Dieu-Grace Healthcare would return to its original downtown home at a reconfigured Ouellette Campus.
Hotel Dieu’s Transitional Stability Centre, which is currently downtown, would remain there and a chronic-disease management program would also be offered.
Hoskins said the province has designated a couple sites as mental health centres for excellence, but has never created one from scratch.
“I was excited to here the Minister validate what we’ve been moving toward,” said Janice Kaffer, president and CEO of Hotel Dieu-Grace Healthcare. “This encourages us to continue what we’re working on. For so many years here in Windsor-Essex we’ve been fractured. We do our things in a little box and didn’t always work together in the way we needed to.
“The centre for excellence brings a different perspective.”
Once the new acute care hospital is open, Windsor Regional Hospital’s Metropolitan site will be demolished and handed over to the city for redevelopment as part of a land swap for the Grace site.
The new hospital will have 500 beds, the same as currently exists, with plans to grow to as many as 700 beds.
The Windsor project is one of six new Ontario hospital complexes, at a cost of $9 billion, to win approval.
Hoskins credited the speed at which the city and county councils moved to approve special levies to raise the $200-million local commitment for the project for strengthening the area’s case.
“We wanted to be in before some of these other communities we were vying with got in,” Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said.
“We wanted to let the ministry know we were serious by putting our money on the table before the project was a reality.”
Dilkens expects hospital officials to come before council in the spring with rezoning requests and updated plans.
“Whatever they need to move forward, we’ll be there to help,” Dilkens said. “Now we know we probably have nine years before that (necessary support infrastructure) will have to be built. We’ll go after provincial and federal funding. We’ll work out the details over the next eight or nine years.”