On May 31, 2022, the Liberal Party candidate for Windsor-West, Ms. Linda McCurdy, held a media conference in front of the Ouellette Campus of Windsor Regional Hospital.

Although we recognize we are in the very late stages of the 2022 provincial election campaign, Windsor Regional Hospital believes it is imperative to respond due to Ms. McCurdy’s comments given the importance of the New Windsor/Essex Acute Care Hospital project to our region.

During her media conference, McCurdy is attributed as stating, among other things, two main issues that are either factually incorrect and/or raise serious concerns:

1. Under the current mega-hospital plan, there would be no emergency rooms remaining at Windsor Regional Hospital’s existing Ouellette and Met campuses. (Source: Windsor Star, May 31, 2022)

Windsor Regional Hospital, through its clinical physician and administrative leadership, has stated during the planning process that the Ouellette Campus urgent care centre is a satellite emergency department that will be staffed by emergency room physicians and nurses. In fact, it will have rooms called resus rooms that can care for patients needing resuscitation. All of this was just re-affirmed at a recent Town Hall on Emergency Services that all of Windsor-Essex was invited to attend hosted by clinical physician and administrative leadership of WRH and Essex-Windsor EMS. A complete list of all town halls can be found on the Together We Build project engagement platform.

2. Ms. McCurdy added that the party views location as a local issue, but one she would take up as the local representative if elected. (Source: Windsor Star, May 31, 2022)

The process to procure and select a site for the new Windsor/Essex Acute Care Hospital is settled. The decision to proceed with the current plan was proposed in 2012 by a tri-partisan task force report after an exhaustive community engagement process.

The location of the New Windsor/Essex Acute Care Hospital has been reviewed and litigated. After the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) decision, a Motion for Leave to Appeal the LPAT decision was filed in Divisional Court. After a two-day hearing, Justice Gregory Verbeem dismissed the Motion for Leave to Appeal and ordered legal costs in favour of the City of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital.

Justice Verbeem stated, “Each of its proposed grounds of appeal was without merit.” For McCurdy to state, if elected, she would revisit the location of the New Windsor-Essex Acute Hospital, would delay this desperately needed new acute care hospital even longer and would add to the delay created in 2017 when the then government failed to forward the promised funding for Stage 2 planning.

To learn the facts about the new Windsor/Essex acute care hospital project please visit wrh.on.ca/windsorhospitals and the project engagement site togetherwebuild.wrh.on.ca.

There will be no further comment on this matter until after the election.