The Windsor Star suggests today that the city is likely to be reduced to one acute care hospital. Hotel Dieu and Windsor Regional have agreed to a partnership that will see all acute services delivered from the Regional. Hotel Dieu would be reduced to the status of an urgent care centre and primarily work on outpatient services. There will be no inpatient beds.
Hotel-Dieu will manage all non-acute programs and services currently offered by Windsor at its west-side Tayfour campus according to the newspaper.
It is interesting that the hospital is quick to note that this is not a hospital merger.
Eventually the two hospitals will be replaced by a large mega hospital. No worries about money when it comes to bricks and mortar. In Ontario this appears to be a bottomless supply.
Details of the proposal have been already sent to the LHIN and the province, which makes us question where the public fits into this scenario? Aren’t integration proposals supposed to show evidence of stakeholder consultation first? Yet clearly this announcement is coming as a big surprise.
OPSEU Diablogue 
Hmmm….Niagara knows this scenario only too well. How long before the Hotel Dieu is closed altogether? And exactly how many years before the provincial deficit is reduced, to permit the investment in that large mega hospital?