Windsor Regional Hospital takes exception to Liberal MPP candidate’s comments on acute care hospital

The site of the new acute care hospital that will be built in Windsor on County Road 42. (Source: Windsor Regional Hospital)

While acknowledging the 2022 provincial election is right around the corner, officials with Windsor Regional Hospital say it is “imperative” they respond to recent comments made by one local candidate regarding the acute care hospital.

On Tuesday, Windsor West Liberal MPP candidate Linda McCurdy held a media conference outside the hospital’s Ouellette Campus.

During the media event, she made a number of comments centred around the need for an acute-care facility in Windsor’s downtown core that could accompany the megahospital set to built on County Road 42 and Concession Road 9.

But officials with Windsor Regional Hospital have taken issue with her comments, releasing a statement in direct response.

McCurdy said Tuesday that, under the current plan for the megahospital, there would be no emergency rooms remaining at Windsor Regional’s existing Ouellette and Met campuses.

But according to hospital officials, they have long touted a plan to open a “24/7 satellite emergency department” in downtown Windsor that would be staffed by ER physicians and nurses.

“In fact, it will have rooms called resus rooms that can care for patients needing resuscitation,” the statement added.

McCurdy also said Tuesday that the Ontario Liberal Party considers the location of the new acute care hospital as a local issue that, if elected, she would revisit.

But officials with Windsor Regional Hospital said Wednesday that the process of procuring and selecting a site has been settled, citing a July 2020 decision from an Ontario Superior Court Justice to deny an appeal from a group opposed to its location.

The hospital adds McCurdy’s position risks delaying “this desperately-needed acute care hospital.”

In response to Windsor Regional's statement, Ward 3 councillor Rino Bortolin took to Twitter to say it is "meant to muddy the discussion" around hospital services in Windsor-Essex.

"Linda has been clear that she supports the CR42 build. The conversation we refuse to have is the lack of services in the core," said Bortolin.