‘There’s a lot of tears’: Several PSW positions eliminated at Tillsonburg hospital

Dozens of personal support workers are being laid off at Tillsonburg’s hospital. CTV’s Bryan Bicknell explains why.

Rural Roads Health Services, the public health care group representing hospitals in Tillsonburg and Ingersoll, has announced it’s updating its model of care for patients with more complex needs.

The change means it’s eliminating several personal support worker (PSW) positions based in the acute care unit at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital.

“There’s a lot of tears still. It’s still kind of new and fresh, so we’re still trying to take it in and figure out what to do with it,” said PSW Jennifer McMaster.

She says she’s one of 26 PSWs at Tillsonburg’s hospital to receive notice that her position will be gone as of September.

“No one’s happy with it. Nobody wants it. The nurses love us. They love our support. They know who to call. They’re going to have a hard time when they have no support. So, it’s going to be rough,” she said.

McMaster says the job losses impact those with decades of experience, as well as many who are relatively new to the field.

In 2024, Doug Ford’s Ontario PC government announced a plan to train more than 32,000 new PSWs and nurses over three years to help fill a gap in long term care in the province.

In response to the announcement, Unifor said in part that they layoffs were “part of a broader pattern of restructuring happening across hospitals in Ontario... The result of the layoffs will be fewer frontline staff doing more work, placing increased strain on already overburdened health care workers and raising serious concerns about patient care, burnout, and workplace safety.”

Rural Roads Health Services declined a request from CTV News for an interview. Instead, it referred to a news release which says patients now require a more complex level of care than what PSWs can provide.

The press release reads in part:

“A review of clinical care delivery and patient acuity shows that patients now require more frequent nursing assessments, complex medication management, and timely clinical interventions that fall within the scope of practice of registered nurses (RNs) and registered practical nurses (RPN).”

Although the hospital has said that it intends to hire more nursing staff Unifor argued that, “these additions do not come close to offsetting the loss of PSWs. PSWs are crucial to quality patient care and provide essential, hands-on support to ensure the dignity, safety, and quality of life for patients every single day.”

“They knew him by first name, and they knew pretty quick what his needs were,” said area resident Dan Harbour of the care his elderly father received during his lengthy stay at the hospital.

Harbour says his father recently left the Tillsonburg hospital after being there for five months waiting for a long-term care bed to open.

“He needed to be somewhere, and they didn’t have a bed for him in a long-term care place. And he couldn’t be at home because he needed 24-hour care. So, the doctor thought it best that he be at the hospital,” explained Harbour.

Rural Roads Health Services says it plans to release more information on changes to its model of care later this week.

“I’m hoping they give us some options that maybe we can fight for a little more time,” said McMaster.