Statement by David Musyj, President and CEO, Windsor Regional Hospital, in response to the 2023 Ontario budget delivered on March 23, 2023

The last three years have been beyond difficult for everyone.

I am very pleased to see the Ford government continues to recognize these facts and has made continued, ongoing and significant investments in healthcare across the whole system and also with respect to Ontario hospitals. The government has signaled a 4% base funding increase to hospitals.

Windsor Regional Hospital’s current annual budget is in excess of $610M dollars. We will await the detailed funding transfer letters which will provide exact details to Windsor Regional Hospital.

Over the past couple of years, the Ford government has invested over $30M in Windsor Regional Hospital annually to fund 62 additional acute medical/surgical, critical care and acute mental health beds these past few years and for 2023-24. This is significant on its own and only one example of the ongoing healthcare investments the Ford government has made to Windsor Regional Hospital.

The Ford government has listened to every request made by Windsor Regional Hospital for additional operational funding, based on a business case, and responded favourably to every one of these requests.

At the same time, the Ford government reinforced multiple times in their 2023 budget its support for the new Windsor/Essex acute care hospital and the Ouellette campus urgent care centre and ambulatory procedures. This project is scheduled to go to tender in 2025 and a “shovel in the ground” is anticipated for 2026.

As stated, we will now work with our Ontario Health and Ministry of Health leaders and partners to receive the exact details of the 2023 Ontario budget as it relates to Windsor Regional Hospital and our community. However, at first blush, this budget continues to show the never-ending support of Ford government to healthcare and hospital healthcare in our Province.