Patients’ Group and SecondStreet.org Highlight Way to Improve Pediatric Care in Windsor

WINDSOR, ON ‒ Local patients’ group Parents for Critical Pediatric Care Windsor and think tank SecondStreet.org held a press conference outside the Windsor Hospital today to draw attention to a policy solution that could improve health care for kids: shut down the hospital’s money-losing Tim Hortons stands, saving $500,000 per year. These savings could be used to hire pediatricians and pediatric nurses.
Since 2010-11, the Windsor Regional Hospital has lost $3 million through running two Tim Hortons franchises: one at the MET campus and one at the Ouellette campus. The losses for 2023-24 alone totalled nearly $500,000 of taxpayers’ money.
“My infant son Sully nearly died from serious complications at birth due to inadequate pediatric care in the Windsor area,” said Kait Lowe, a Windsor mother and founder of Parents for Critical Pediatric Care Windsor. “If the hospital didn’t lose half a million dollars each year through their Tim Hortons stands, those dollars could be used to hire more pediatric doctors, nurses and buy medical equipment designed for kids.”
“It’s not just my son,” added Lowe. “I run a Facebook group with nearly 400 members from the Windsor area. It’s filled with testimonials of parents whose children have been let down by this city’s health care system. Parents of sick kids don’t want subsidized coffee, we want our tax dollars used for health care.”
“Why is this hospital so dedicated to flushing money down the drain on coffee?” said Dom Lucyk, SecondStreet.org Communications Director. “We’ve highlighted the annual losses for years, but nothing has changed. The hospital’s leadership even seems proud of this waste of tax dollars, noting they’re ‘double-doubleing’ down on the losses.”
“Windsor Regional Hospital could immediately improve care by shuttering the subsidized Tim Hortons. As hospitals around the country do, it could simply rent the space out to a privately run restaurant ‒ even another Tim Hortons,” continued Lucyk. “This would actually generate a profit, and free up hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be spent on a pediatric doctor, more nurses – expenses that are actually useful for the people of Windsor.”
To see WRH’s financial statements on the money-losing Tim Hortons over the past decade – click here.
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