County to debate $3 million hospital contribution at budget
Expanded angioplasty facilities would be included in new facility
Posted By Ron Giofu/The Amherstburg Echo
Posted 2 months ago
ESSEX — Essex County council has referred a multi-million dollar request from the Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital Foundation to its upcoming budget sessions.
Representatives from the foundation appeared before county council last Wednesday night requesting $3 million over seven to ten years for a $78.3 million expansion. A major component of the expansion is for increase angiogram and angioplasty services, as only one cardiologist is trained for angioplasty surgery in Windsor.
Dr. Amr Morsi noted that an average angiogram takes 45 minutes with an angioplasty usually taking up to one hour. However, another cardiac catherization laboratory would help increase local access to angioplasties and reduce the liklihood of patients having to travel to London, Toronto or Detroit. Morsi said if a patient needs an immediate angioplasty, that can delay other patients waiting for an angiogram as there is limited staff and resources currently.
There were 433 angioplasty procedures done last year in Windsor but the hospital is gunning to do 1,000 as hundreds of patients still have to be transported elsewhere.
Morsi said an effort will be made to recruit additional cardiologists to the region.
Kim Spirou, the foundation's executive director and the hospital's vice president of communications, called Windsor-Essex County "a cardiac hotspot" that is statistically the second worst in Canada, behind only Chatham-Kent. She noted that there is a $12.5 million public fundraising component with $5.2 million already having been raised. Windsor, Chatham-Kent and prominent local businesses and individuals will be approached to make up the rest.
"We feel this is a project worthy of your support and investment," Spirou told county council.
The expansion would be three stories and comprise 75,000 square feet. Spirou said they hope to break ground next year with it being an 18-20 month project to build.
CAW Local 444 president Rick Laporte, himself a member of the foundation, recounted a 2007 heart attack where he had to be transported to Detroit. His ambulance was called in for secondary inspection at the border en route to Henry Ford Hospital. The trip saw his heart stop twice. Laporte said that trip emphasized to him "the need to take care of our own."
Members of county council agreed to send the request to their budget deliberations but not until they spoke favourably of the concept.
Amherstburg Mayor Wayne Hurst called it a "worthwhile investment" adding that "if I need that, you'd have a hard time getting me off that table.
"It's an investment in the health and well being in this region."
