Personal support workers in the acute care units at one London-area hospital will be losing their jobs due to changes in the organization’s “model of care.”
Rural Roads Health Services manages Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital and Alexandra Hospital in Ingersoll. At the Tillsonburg hospital, adjustments are being made to “better meet the needs of patients whose medical conditions have become increasingly complex,” officials stated in a news release.
A review indicated that patients require “more frequent nursing assessments, complex medication management and timely clinical interventions” that should be handled by registered nurses and registered practical nurses. The hospital plans to hire more nurses “in both the acute care and the intensive care unit,” according to the news release. “As part of this transition, the PSW role will be eliminated from the acute care units.”
Unifor, representing 27 personal support workers who’ve received layoff notices from the hospital, is “deeply concerned” about these cuts, “particularly as part of a broader pattern of restructuring happening” across Ontario, union representatives said in a statement.
Adding more nurses won’t “come close to offsetting the loss of PSWs,” union representatives stated.
Officials from Rural Roads Health Services say that these changes won’t impact patient care or bed capacity. It remains unclear if any PSWs will face layoffs at Alexandra Hospital in Ingersoll. Rural Roads president and CEO Nadia Facca declined to comment and referred The Free Press to their news release.
St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital also recently announced it would cut 26 PSWs from its staff – a move aimed at implementing an updated model of care, according to hospital officials.
London Health Sciences Centre has also revealed a restructuring plan that will reduce several roles through attrition over the next three-plus years. This includes cutting 68.8 full-time equivalent PSWs over approximately three to eight years, LHSC supervisor David Musyj mentioned in an email statement on Wednesday.
“Despite these planned changes, it is important to note that approximately 359 PSW (full-time equivalents) remain actively employed at LHSC today,” he stated. “PSWs will continue to play an important role in patient care.”
A significant aspect of staffing reductions as part of LHSC’s restructuring involves ultimately eliminating 288 registered nursing positions. Musyj noted that LHSC is adding around 108 registered practical nursing positions to better align staffing models with patient needs and peer hospital benchmarks.
bwilliams@postemdia. com
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