Essex town council wants an audience with Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins over long wait times in hospital emergency wards.

And despite feeling snubbed during Hoskins’ recent mega-hospital announcement in Windsor, Coun. Randy Voakes said Tuesday that they won’t stop asking for a face-to face meeting.

“He stood us up,” said Voakes, who called the brush-off “deplorable.” 

Essex council requested a meeting in mid-November after Voakes had been to a Windsor emergency department and saw patients waiting in beds in hallways or receiving some treatment with no privacy. The health minister’s office said in a letter that Hoskins didn’t have time to meet, just a week before he showed up in Windsor Friday to announce support for the new $2-billion mega-hospital.

Hoskins was about 23 kilometres away and didn’t have time for Essex councillors who would have been willing to meet in Windsor, Voakes said.

“Send the letter again. It’s unacceptable. You need to talk to us,” Voakes said of his motion that passed Monday at Essex council’s meeting asking again to meet with Hoskins. A copy will be sent to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

A Nov. 23 letter from the office of the minister said: “Unfortunately the Minister’s schedule is extremely tight for the next few months and he won’t be able to commit to a time in the foreseeable future.”

Eight days later he was in Windsor announcing funding for the $2-billion new hospital.

Essex Coun. Sherry Bondy said she was disappointed. Tell us the new hospital is going to alleviate the problem of ER waits and fewer nurses, she said Tuesday night.

“As a council member I’m concerned that we may possibly see a reduction in service with a lot of funds going to bricks and mortar instead of investing in people, investing in positions,” she said.

If Hoskins had said he was interested in meeting with Essex council, they could have driven to Windsor or a video teleconference could have been arranged, Voakes said.

The outspoken Voakes considered asking the minister questions during the Friday funding announcement but didn’t want to create a scene, he said

Voakes said the government needs to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on staffing now and not hold back until the new hospital is built to prove the new hospital was the solution.

“That’s bricks and mortar. That don’t mean nothing at the end of the day,” Voakes said. “It’s what’s going on inside those facilities where you should be putting $2 billion.”

Messages were left with Hoskins’ office Tuesday afternoon.

The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care lists the average wait in October in an ER at Windsor Regional Hospital was 6.3 hours for complex cases and 2.9 hours for less complicated cases at the Ouellette campus and 3.1 hours for the Met campus. The total wait was as high as 12.5 hours overall at the Ouellette campus in the October stats.

shill@postmedia.com

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