Why has this billboard on the former Grace Hospital site not yet been removed?

Photo published in The Windsor Star on May 3, 2019 advertising the "future home of the proposed urgent care centre"

It's been three months since the City of Windsor definitively announced an urgent care centre (UCC) would not be built on the former Grace Hospital site. In May 2019, the City formally invited expressions of interest (EOI) for other uses for the six acre lot.

Astonishingly, Windsor Regional Hospital still claims it is the future site of an urgent care centre! What could be the reason for not advertising the EOI widely? There's absolutely no signage to indicate the former Grace Hospital site is available for redevelopment. Wouldn't that be helpful for drawing the attention of urban-minded developers? Might there be an insider waiting in the wings for a sweetheart deal after the August 16, 2019 deadline?

Photo taken Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 8:45 a.m.

Did you know, almost two years ago a UCC on this site was already in doubt? On December 1, 2017, the former Minister of Health, Dr. Eric Hoskins announced the Ministry would be looking at using the Emergency Department (ED) of Ouellette Campus for the site of a UCC, rather than the Grace property located 2.6 km to its northwest. (An ED is a 24/7 service that operates in a hospital -- For more on the substantial difference between an ED and a UCC, see this link)

Extract from HayGroup's January 26, 2009 report "Small Community Hospital Emergency Department Study":

Here is Dr. Hoskins in this 24 second clip from his 2017 announcement:

"We’ve got to do what’s right for the taxpayers and for the residents of this city", said Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens. Indeed. A $58M addition to Ouellette Campus was completed in 2005. (This was part of an extensive 20-year, $670M expansion project that was ultimately shelved in 2013 after the decision was made to replace both of Windsor's acute care hospital campuses with a single site facility. Both Ouellette and Metropolitan campuses are to be demolished according to the plan) From the description of the renovation project in the August 31, 2003 edition of Health Care Design Magazine, it's diificult to believe that continued use of the Emergency Department is no longer feasible:

"As a major step in the redevelopment process, a new 130,000-square-foot wing was constructed to the east of the existing hospital on three levels. This project includes the Emergency Department, Outpatient Clinics, Diagnostic Imaging, Surgical Suite, and ICU. As part of the new Diagnostic and Treatment addition, a new main entrance, drop-off, lobby, and vertical connections were created, along with a new ambulatory and ambulance emergency entrance, on Goyeau Street."

Why are hospital planners continuing to mislead local residents, especially those living in Wards 2 and 3, with the promise of an urgent care centre on the former Grace Hospital site? Importantly, are the local elected and unelected decision makers really doing "what's right for the taxpayers," especially in light of the Ouellette Campus additions 15 years ago?

Recommended summer reading from the July 9, 2019 edition of The Atlantic: "Americans Shouldn’t Have to Drive, but the Law Insists on It"

University of Iowa College of Law professor Gregory S. Hill describes in the article how the American legal system helped squeeze out alternative modes of transit using examples that are valid in Canada too.

"Instead of merely accommodating some people’s desire to drive, our laws essentially force driving on all of us—by subsidizing it, by punishing people who don’t do it, by building a physical landscape that requires it ... ... zoning rules scatter Americans across distances and highway-like roads that are impractical or dangerous to traverse on foot. The resulting densities are also too low to sustain high-frequency public transit. Further entrenching automobile supremacy are laws that require landowners who build housing and office space to build housing for cars as well."

The article covers many of the same types of issues we're grappling with in Windsor. The proposed location of the new hospital and the Sandwich South development are never likely to facilitate the scale and frequency of bus service and bicycle infrastructure implied in the plan approved by Windsor City Council --- and envisioned by Ontario's Planning Policy Statement. Will taxpayers be prepared to pay the high (and as yet undisclosed) price to supply the level of service that will make it attractive for large numbers of people to take the bus? Of course, it would be absurd to suggest that everyone stop driving to hospital. We're simply calling attention to the need for time-efficient and cost-effective twenty-first century transportation options -- especially for the thousands of employees and volunteers who work at Windsor Regional Hospital:

Is it possible the planners only paid lip service to the needs of staff, patients and visitors who may - perhaps through no choice of their own - rely on active or public transportation? Read the Atlantic article here

In their own words: Weekly round-up of comments from our friends and neighbours

"I received my first CAMPP email today!  It has the virtual air of a (provocative-good) new text book... or the first edition of an important magazine. Dare I compare it to opening a new toy, or sitting in a new car?"

"Essentially why spend hundreds of millions of dollars and destroy the core if it's not going to save anyone any time."

"I was sent to do a pizza delivery Called customer: I'm lost Customer : look for the don't close met and oullette campus sign. 🤣 Me: I should comp this pizza lol."

"They are spending public healthcare dollars on lawyers from Toronto. They should have addressed our concerns instead."

"We talk about food deserts. Well, Windsor is developing a health care desert."

"It's a dereliction of duty that they are letting public assets rot. Ouellette Campus is being demolished by neglect."

"I don't understand why a new hospital needs a 60-acre facility. Sure, an ER, an operating room, acute care wards, and diagnostics such as CT , MRI, and lab, are essential, but anything that can be handled with an appointment does not need to be in the same facility. Dialysis clinics, orthopaedic clinics, and a myriad of other functions can work very well as stand-alones."

"Time is the precursor to evolution to avoid redundant dispersion and existing urban decay as reflected in Detroit's urban core from 1955 to 2000. It's time to pause, reflect and re-think sustainability toward achieving a plausible solution."

"Every metropolis and surrounding area has a hospital and they are located within the most densely populated area. Windsor needs an anchor too."

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