Windsor Regional Hospital has announced that it will stop operating it's Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) clinic as of November 1, 2019.

Windsor Regional Hospital will stop funding both the clinic and the physician's stipend. It is the only hospital that has provided these healthcare services in the region. A Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist is an obstetrician-gynecologist that provides care or consultation for both mother and fetus in the complicated pregnancy.

High-risk patients are treated for a wide range of issues including abnormal ultrasounds, concerns from previous pregnancies, hypertension, organ transplants, respiratory disease, congenital heart disease, and genetic abnormalities.

Windsor Essex will no longer have access to Level 3 care which means women who require these services won't be treated locally. They will have to travel to London.

The clinic has been operating for 18 years. Dr. Bill Mundle, the clinic's director, has been there from the start. “I think it’s a huge loss for the community,” he said. “I think it is going to be something that is going to make the quality of care that people get here decreased. From my perspective, I think a lot of these people don’t have the resources to travel out of town for their treatments.”

The annual cost of the program, the clinic itself and the physician is $460,000.

Along with many low-risk patients, the clinic's director says the clinic provides about 500 high-risk consultations every year, and more than 1,500 high-risk prenatal visits.

Windsor Regional Hospital has stated that this is NOT the result of funding cuts by the provincial government but rather a CHOICE they have made on the basis of finding "efficiencies". In other words, it's a matter of priorities.

Sign the petition and send a message to Windsor Regional Hospital's CEO, David Musyj, and its board of directors that women with high-risk pregnancies in Windsor-Essex are a priority.