Why WE can’t wait
OUR ACUTE CARE facilities are no longer fit for purpose.
IT STARTS WITH CRUMBLING infrastructure.
Aged. Tired. Crumbling. Those are words that front line staff use to describe the state of repair at Windsor-Essex’s hospitals. Most buildings are now more than fifty years old. Some are even older. Aging facilities mean that leaky roofs and boiler failures have become the ‘new normal’ for staff.
In 2018, Windsor Regional Hospital spent more than $180,000 on roof repairs alone, diverting money that could’ve gone towards patient care. Boiler repairs have cost upwards of $680,000 over the past five years. And at present, the hospital’s list of infrastructure needs is approximately $300 million - a cost that will increase over time.
The crumbling infrastructure is impacting patient service. It’s now common for procedures and surgeries to be delayed as a result of building repairs. In some cases, staff are forced to use portable heaters to ensure reasonable temperatures in important facilities like the Cardiac Cath Lab.
BUILT FOR TWO INFANTS, NOW HOME TO THREE ADULTS.
Windsor-Essex’s hospitals were built at a time when the population had fewer than 20,000 residents. Today, with over 350,000 residents across Windsor-Essex, the current hospital network is vastly undersized to accommodate patient demand.
Due to limited space at the Ouellette Campus, patients are now crammed into rooms. On the former paediatric floor, what used to house two infants is now beds for three adults. With patients crammed this close together – there’s no room for privacy or for staff to move about.
There’s simply no space left – resulting in ‘hallway medicine’ when demand exceeds capacity.
TWO ‘HALF’ HOSPITALS, UNCOMFORTABLE & DANGEROUS TRANSFERS
With patient care divided across two campuses, patients requiring complex acute care need to be transferred via ambulance between the two existing facilities.
This is of serious concern with surgical complications or cardiac/vascular care – patients arriving at the Met campus in such dire circumstances will need to be transferred to the Ouellette via ambulance, often in precarious condition – putting patients at risk.
HYGIENE A CHALLENGE, PATIENT SAFETY constantly at RISK
In new Ontario hospitals, 80% of rooms are mandated to be single-bed private to limit the spread of infection. Only 29% of rooms at the Met Campus and 16% at the Ouellette Campus are allocated for single-patient use. With limited isolation, outbreaks of influenza and Norwalk virus have become common occurrence.
To make matters worse, some patient washrooms don’t even have sinks. This means that many patients have to walk across an entire floor to wash their hands after using the toilet.
Infection control is now a persistent challenge.
PATIENTS ARE RECEIVING TRAILER MEDICINE
A long-awaited $3.5 million PET/CT scanner critical for identifying early-stage cancers finally arrived at the Met campus. But while the technology is state-of-the-art and serves about 600 patients a year, there was no room for it in the hospital. So it was placed in a trailer, adjacent to the hospital.
Only a new hospital will be able to have new PET/CT scanners, MRI machines, and cath labs directly integrated into the building.
ONCE A GYM, NOW A FIELD COVID-19 FIELD HOSPITAL.
Windsor-Essex’s proximity to the United States makes it an important centre for trade and commerce – but due to COVID-19, the region is also now Canada’s first line of pandemic defense on the border.
Aging infrastructure means the region doesn’t have adequate lab facilities to test the thousands of individuals crossing the border each day, or local residents. COVID-19 tests are currently shipped off to London.
Inadequate infrastructure also means our hospitals don’t have surge capacity – which has resulted in the construction of an emergency field hospital at St. Clair College’s gymnasium.
