Frequently Asked Questions |
Q: Will the new hospital mean I’ll no longer have to travel to Toronto or London for medical care?
A: No. Patients will still need to travel to Toronto or London for specialized medical care, just as they do today.
Q: What will happen to our existing hospitals?
A: Both Metropolitan (South Walkerville) and Ouellette (Downtown) campuses will be demolished. A smaller facility will be built on the site of the Ouellette campus to support chronic disease management and mental health services.
Q: What will happen to the relatively new Cancer Centre at Windsor Regional Hospital’s Metropolitan campus?
A: All cancer care services will be relocated to the new hospital on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport.
Q: But didn’t Windsor Regional Hospital recently finish a major expansion project?
A: A major “state of the art” expansion project at Met Campus from 2002 to 2005 resulted in the construction of new operating rooms, Ambulatory Care suites and a new Cancer Care Centre, to name just a few. The final phase alone cost $101M. Under the proposed plan, this will all be demolished.
Q: Isn’t a new Ronald McDonald House being built?
A: Construction of the first ever Canadian Ronald McDonald House-Within-A-Hospital recently began inside Met Campus. It will provide seven bedrooms to support families of sick children. Since the entire hospital is to be torn down, the Ronald McDonald House will be demolished too.
Q: How much will this cost the community?
A: The local community will pay 10% ($200M) of the new hospital’s anticipated $2 billion construction cost. On top of that, it will also pay for road widening and other infrastructure (eg sewers, hydro and even EMS and fire stations). These costs could be as high as a further $300M when all is said and done, costing the local community about $500M in total. There will also be higher running costs, like the costs of public transit, snow removal and road maintenance.
CAMPP has been asking Council to do the math so taxpayers have a better insight into exactly what costs are involved.
County municipalities will be paying a share, but there isn’t any clarity yet about how the bill will be divided. CAMPP is asking for insight into other proposed sites where this infrastructure is already largely in place.
Q: Will our taxes be raised to pay for this?
A: Yes. The increased taxes may come in the form of annual levies over a period of several years. The actual amounts involved haven’t yet been determined.
Q: I thought hospital planning experts made this decision? Shouldn't we leave it up to the experts?
A: The committee that selected the site on County Rd 42 had no urban planning or medical experts. Of its 11 members, more than half were members or former members of the Board of Windsor Regional Hospital.
We don’t question their integrity and have no doubt they worked hard and did their best to be fair, but we are concerned they started with a faulty mandate given to them by non-planning experts to find 50-60 acres of greenfield land.
Q: Won’t the Urgent Care Centre on the Grace Site address my medical needs?
A: The Urgent Care Centre will not be open 24/7. Certain medical conditions will always require travel to the acute care hospital on County Road 42:
Q: I don't like the location of the new hospital on County Road 42 but Mr Musyj said the funding will be given to another city if we aren't all on board.
A: We have heard Mr. Musyj say that too, but the Ministry of Health has assured us it's not true. There is definitely room in the process for constructive public discussion. A hospital on County Road 42 will be a mega-mistake and we have to speak out.
Q: If I need an ambulance, will it bring me to the closest facility?
A: Ambulances will deliver patients to the hospital on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport. They will not bring patients to the downtown Urgent Care Centre.
Q: If the proposed location on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport isn’t suitable, what alternative sites do you have in mind?
A: A cost analysis of the other proposed sites should be conducted and made available to the public.
Q: How does the site on County Road 42 support Windsor’s strategic vision?
A: Windsor’s strategic vision is in direct conflict with the site selected south of Windsor Airport. This is because the site:
Q: Why have we not heard from the medical community?
A: We are asking the same question! How is it that no doctors or nurses have given their opinion in public about moving the region's hospital to County Road 42? Shouldn't we be hearing from medical experts about how they feel about what, in their professional experience, is the best location for their patients?
Q: This is supposed to be a regional hospital. Don’t County residents matter?
A: It might seem counter-intuitive, but the proposed hospital location on County Road 42 is actually further away for the majority of people who will be using it than what we have currently. This is because most people will have to drive around Windsor Airport in order to get there.
We would like to know why an additional facility (like the Urgent Care Centre proposed for Downtown) isn’t being built to serve County residents closer to where they live.
Q: Wasn’t there an extensive public consultation process?
A: There was only a very limited consultation process. There was one public survey and it was only available for input for two weeks. Other than that, there were no mechanisms to objectively collect and measure the residents’ feedback.
Although there were quite a few presentations, there were only four public meetings in total where residents could go to hear about the project - and only one of these meetings was held in Windsor. But even at these meetings, there was no possibility for residents to submit their feedback in a way that would be collected and measured.
Even today, many people, especially some of our most vulnerable residents with greater medical needs, aren’t aware of how their access to hospital-based healthcare is set to change.
Q: If it takes just a couple of minutes extra to drive to the new hospital, why does this all matter so much?
A: The location of the new hospital on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport is further away from Windsor’s core than any other city in Ontario, and about five times further than average. We know we like to think of ourselves as unique in Windsor-Essex, but surely we deserve better?
We also know that many people don’t drive and this is only going to become a bigger issue as more of our seniors get older. Catching a bus takes quite a bit longer than driving, especially for those who don’t live close to a bus route. Besides, taking a bus isn’t always an option for residents who have difficulty walking, and cabs can get really expensive, which is going to cause real hardship for people living on fixed incomes.
Successful cities all over Canada are making great strides in making their communities more compact. This allows more seniors to “age in place”, it attracts young people who are increasingly choosing to live in communities where they don’t need to own a car, and it makes good environmental sense.
If we build our new hospital south of Windsor Airport, it will leave a hole in Windsor’s core. There is no doubt that medical professionals who live and work near the current hospitals will gradually move to homes, medical offices, pharmacies and diagnostic labs that are closer to County Road 42. This proposed move will be another nail in Windsor’s coffin.
A: No. Patients will still need to travel to Toronto or London for specialized medical care, just as they do today.
Q: What will happen to our existing hospitals?
A: Both Metropolitan (South Walkerville) and Ouellette (Downtown) campuses will be demolished. A smaller facility will be built on the site of the Ouellette campus to support chronic disease management and mental health services.
Q: What will happen to the relatively new Cancer Centre at Windsor Regional Hospital’s Metropolitan campus?
A: All cancer care services will be relocated to the new hospital on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport.
Q: But didn’t Windsor Regional Hospital recently finish a major expansion project?
A: A major “state of the art” expansion project at Met Campus from 2002 to 2005 resulted in the construction of new operating rooms, Ambulatory Care suites and a new Cancer Care Centre, to name just a few. The final phase alone cost $101M. Under the proposed plan, this will all be demolished.
Q: Isn’t a new Ronald McDonald House being built?
A: Construction of the first ever Canadian Ronald McDonald House-Within-A-Hospital recently began inside Met Campus. It will provide seven bedrooms to support families of sick children. Since the entire hospital is to be torn down, the Ronald McDonald House will be demolished too.
Q: How much will this cost the community?
A: The local community will pay 10% ($200M) of the new hospital’s anticipated $2 billion construction cost. On top of that, it will also pay for road widening and other infrastructure (eg sewers, hydro and even EMS and fire stations). These costs could be as high as a further $300M when all is said and done, costing the local community about $500M in total. There will also be higher running costs, like the costs of public transit, snow removal and road maintenance.
CAMPP has been asking Council to do the math so taxpayers have a better insight into exactly what costs are involved.
County municipalities will be paying a share, but there isn’t any clarity yet about how the bill will be divided. CAMPP is asking for insight into other proposed sites where this infrastructure is already largely in place.
Q: Will our taxes be raised to pay for this?
A: Yes. The increased taxes may come in the form of annual levies over a period of several years. The actual amounts involved haven’t yet been determined.
Q: I thought hospital planning experts made this decision? Shouldn't we leave it up to the experts?
A: The committee that selected the site on County Rd 42 had no urban planning or medical experts. Of its 11 members, more than half were members or former members of the Board of Windsor Regional Hospital.
We don’t question their integrity and have no doubt they worked hard and did their best to be fair, but we are concerned they started with a faulty mandate given to them by non-planning experts to find 50-60 acres of greenfield land.
Q: Won’t the Urgent Care Centre on the Grace Site address my medical needs?
A: The Urgent Care Centre will not be open 24/7. Certain medical conditions will always require travel to the acute care hospital on County Road 42:
- acute conditions like heart attacks and strokes
- specialist referrals (e.g. appointments for follow-up on joint replacements, eye surgery, skin cancer, fractures, etc)
- surgeries (inpatient and outpatient).
Q: I don't like the location of the new hospital on County Road 42 but Mr Musyj said the funding will be given to another city if we aren't all on board.
A: We have heard Mr. Musyj say that too, but the Ministry of Health has assured us it's not true. There is definitely room in the process for constructive public discussion. A hospital on County Road 42 will be a mega-mistake and we have to speak out.
Q: If I need an ambulance, will it bring me to the closest facility?
A: Ambulances will deliver patients to the hospital on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport. They will not bring patients to the downtown Urgent Care Centre.
Q: If the proposed location on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport isn’t suitable, what alternative sites do you have in mind?
A: A cost analysis of the other proposed sites should be conducted and made available to the public.
Q: How does the site on County Road 42 support Windsor’s strategic vision?
A: Windsor’s strategic vision is in direct conflict with the site selected south of Windsor Airport. This is because the site:
- uses greenfield (viable farmland) instead of brownfield
- makes hospital-based healthcare less accessible to residents than it is currently
- adds to our debt load
- reduces our ability to service other infrastructure priorities such as repairing and maintaining existing roads.
Q: Why have we not heard from the medical community?
A: We are asking the same question! How is it that no doctors or nurses have given their opinion in public about moving the region's hospital to County Road 42? Shouldn't we be hearing from medical experts about how they feel about what, in their professional experience, is the best location for their patients?
Q: This is supposed to be a regional hospital. Don’t County residents matter?
A: It might seem counter-intuitive, but the proposed hospital location on County Road 42 is actually further away for the majority of people who will be using it than what we have currently. This is because most people will have to drive around Windsor Airport in order to get there.
We would like to know why an additional facility (like the Urgent Care Centre proposed for Downtown) isn’t being built to serve County residents closer to where they live.
Q: Wasn’t there an extensive public consultation process?
A: There was only a very limited consultation process. There was one public survey and it was only available for input for two weeks. Other than that, there were no mechanisms to objectively collect and measure the residents’ feedback.
Although there were quite a few presentations, there were only four public meetings in total where residents could go to hear about the project - and only one of these meetings was held in Windsor. But even at these meetings, there was no possibility for residents to submit their feedback in a way that would be collected and measured.
Even today, many people, especially some of our most vulnerable residents with greater medical needs, aren’t aware of how their access to hospital-based healthcare is set to change.
Q: If it takes just a couple of minutes extra to drive to the new hospital, why does this all matter so much?
A: The location of the new hospital on County Road 42 south of Windsor Airport is further away from Windsor’s core than any other city in Ontario, and about five times further than average. We know we like to think of ourselves as unique in Windsor-Essex, but surely we deserve better?
We also know that many people don’t drive and this is only going to become a bigger issue as more of our seniors get older. Catching a bus takes quite a bit longer than driving, especially for those who don’t live close to a bus route. Besides, taking a bus isn’t always an option for residents who have difficulty walking, and cabs can get really expensive, which is going to cause real hardship for people living on fixed incomes.
Successful cities all over Canada are making great strides in making their communities more compact. This allows more seniors to “age in place”, it attracts young people who are increasingly choosing to live in communities where they don’t need to own a car, and it makes good environmental sense.
If we build our new hospital south of Windsor Airport, it will leave a hole in Windsor’s core. There is no doubt that medical professionals who live and work near the current hospitals will gradually move to homes, medical offices, pharmacies and diagnostic labs that are closer to County Road 42. This proposed move will be another nail in Windsor’s coffin.