Ouellette Campus may keep an emergency department
An emergency department could still exist at the Ouellette Campus as part of the mega-hospital project, according to the head of Windsor Regional Hospital. “Urgent care located on an interim basis at the Ouellette Campus is still on the table,” David Musyj, CEO for Windsor Regional Hospital said on Wednesday regarding discussions with decision makers in Toronto on finalizing the city’s $2-billion mega-hospital plan. There have been community concerns raised since a major part of the city’s new acute-care hospital plan featured an urgent care centre on the grounds of the former Grace Hospital.
But it would not be a 24-hour operation, nor include a full emergency room range of services, which rankled many.
The new provincial government under Premier Doug Ford has been looking at cutting project costs across Ontario, so avoiding construction at the vacant Grace site in favour of further investment at the Ouellette Campus may prove preferential, Musyj said. He indicated recent conversations with the ministry have included an emergency department presence being maintained at the hospital’s Ouellette Campus — at least on an interim basis that may become something longer. “You might have interim urgent care centre there for certain amount of years then build something at Grace,” Musyj said.
“But the city owns the Grace site. If something else comes up and they have plans they might go ahead and do something else.
“This would be a satellite emergency department (on Ouellette), but our (patient volume) statistics show it should be run only 18 hours a day. That doesn’t mean that can’t be expanded by the time it opens. You might increase the hours or decrease based on demand.”
If approved, the Ouellette Campus would be staffed by emergency room nurses and physicians, he said.
“It would be a fully functional emergency department, handle (serious medical) cases that show up at the door,” he said. “Just no in-patient beds.” Discussions with the Health Ministry are at a critical stage as nailing down a final blueprint under the mega-hospital plan is likely to be completed within the next few months, he said.
A newer wing of the hospital’s Ouellette campus opened in 2005 at a cost of $58 million and included upgrades to the emergency department, plus featured new outpatient clinics, diagnostic imaging, a surgical suite and ICU.
A new main entrance and drop-off lobby was also created, along with a new ambulance emergency entrance off Goyeau Street.
It is that section of the downtown hospital that is a focus of current discussions on retaining, despite plans to demolish much of the current facility in order to rebuild a new specialized mentalhealth centre on the site to be operated by Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare.
There are also talks of maintaining diagnostic imaging and day surgery inside operating rooms at the Ouellette Campus if a portion of the structure is deemed to be saved from the wrecking ball, Musyj said.
A few beds would also be kept on site for day-patient surgeries and some emergency-related needs, he said. Even if such a satellite emergency centre is tagged to close at 11 p.m. or midnight it won’t mean patients will be asked to leave, Musyj said. Everyone arriving before closing time would still receive care with staff continuing to work until all needs are met each night, he said. “We are continuing to develop the plan,” Musyj said. “They have been very positive discussions about moving forward. The next few months there will be definitive answers on which way we are going.”
Mayor Drew Dilkens said he his being kept abreast of all the developments.
“We’re in frequent contact with the minister’s office, I’ve spoken to the minister (Christine Elliott) directly about this issue, I talk to David Musyj frequently about progress and we are very closely aligned in making sure we get great health care for our community,” Dilkens said. “Absolutely, unequivocally, without a shadow of a doubt, emergency services will be delivered in our downtown core. “The question is will they be delivered at the Grace site, will they be delivered at the Ouellette site, or will there be another site in the downtown core that is selected? ”