Ontario Investing $30 Million More in Windsor Regional Hospital

WINDSOR — As the Ontario government accelerates the timeline to build the new Windsor Regional Hospital, it is investing approximately $30 million in the current hospital to connect people with improved treatments for patients with cancer and cardiovascular disease. This funding will make it easier for more patients in the Windsor-Essex Region to be diagnosed and treated closer to home.

“Our government is giving Windsor Regional Hospital the funds it needs to provide the best possible care to patients in the region while we work towards building a new and modern hospital,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “This means that patients in the area will no longer have to travel far distances to receive treatment, leading to faster care and improved quality of life.”

Windsor Regional Hospital will use this investment to renovate its cardiac catheterization lab, which is where patients receive angiograms, angioplasties and other minimally invasive cardiac tests and procedures. Due to limited access in the past, patients had to travel to London, two-hours away, or cross the border to Detroit for urgent procedures. This funding will expand the catheterization lab, currently operating 24-hours a day, to add a second catheterization table offering continual and convenient access for cardiac patients in the region.

In addition, this investment will enable the hospital to expand its cancer centre to accommodate a new linear accelerator, which provides cancer patients with necessary radiation therapy treatment. This additional linear accelerator will allow Windsor Regional Hospital to treat more cancer patients with life-saving radiation therapy even sooner than before.

As part of the government’s plan to connect people with more convenient care, Ontario is investing over $1 billion in more than 50 major hospital projects, including the new Windsor Regional Hospital, over the next 10 years. As Ontario continues to ambitiously develop hospitals and health care facilities across the province, patients can expect high-quality care, when and where they need it.

Quick Facts

• Over the last year, Ontario has made significant health care investments in Windsor-Essex, including the creation of a new Ontario Health Team and $1.1 million in funding to help integrate health care services in the region.
• In 2022, the Ontario government invested over $182 million to support critical upgrades and repairs at 131 hospitals and 65 community health care facilities across the province.
• The Ontario government has committed to investing over $300 million in 2022-23 as part of the province’s surgical recovery strategy, bringing the total investment to approximately $880 million over the last three fiscal years.
• To support growing demands on the health care system, Ontario will create $40 billion in health infrastructure across the province over the next ten years. These investments will increase capacity in hospitals, build new health care facilities and renew existing hospitals and community health centres.

Quotes

"Thank you to the Ford government for moving these important projects forward for our hospital and most importantly for the cardiac and cancer patients we serve in our region. These are long-awaited developments for Windsor-Essex promised a decade or more ago which, along with recent approval to expedite the process to a new state-of-the-art acute care hospital for our region, will modernize and vastly improve our goal of providing timely and efficient access to quality care." - David Musyj, President and CEO, Windsor Regional Hospital

"I suffered a heart attack in 2008 that resulted in me requiring the emergency services of the current single table cardiac catheterization suite in Windsor. The hospital team saved my life. I tried to personally repay the debt of gratitude by raising money in 2012 by riding my bicycle from Dawson City, Yukon to Windsor, Ontario. The money raised was to support construction of a new cardiac catheterization suite that would include a second catheterization table. I want to thank the Ford government for reinvigorating this project and making the new cardiac catheterization suite with a second table finally a reality." - Mr. Mike Jones, Cardiac survivor and advocate