Nearly 40 personal support workers are facing layoffs at Guelph General Hospital.

CUPE Local 57 and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions held a demonstration Monday morning outside of the hospital to protest.

Michael Hurley, president of OCHU-CUPE, said PSWs provide a tremendous amount of value.

“These people who are also involved in the activities of daily living for these patients, like washing them and grooming them, making their beds bring them ice water. These are functions that patients value,” Hurley said.

The layoffs come during a staffing crunch at the hospital.

In a statement on Monday, Guelph General Hospital said there was a demonstration taking place near the building’s Emergency Department entrance.

The hospital said its decision to reduce PSW positions was guided by a routine review of their care model. It said PSWs will still remain as part of their care team.

“During the height of the pandemic, when health human resource challenges were significant, we added the role of PSW to support our existing clinical staff team. At the time, our vacancy rate (the percentage of vacant positions) was around 7.6%. Our vacancy rate now is around 4.3%. Now that we are in a more stable position both with respect to staffing and the pandemic, adjustments need to be made to ensure we continue to optimize the delivery of care,” the statement read.

The hospital went on to say that it recognizes the impact these changes have on staff and the community. The hospital said it cares deeply about healthcare in Guelph-Wellington and delivering it to the best of their ability.

In a press release from the union on Monday, it said the cuts are part of a growing pattern in the sector as hospitals look to address ballooning deficits due to underfunding from the government.

Hurley knows first-hand the value of a PSW’s role inside the hospital, as he said he was a patient in an Ottawa hospital a couple years ago. He said he really valued having people come when he needed them, and said the risk for many is if nobody comes, a patient tries get out of their bed and they fall, or if nobody comes to turn them then a sore spot on their hip becomes a bed sore.

He said provincial hospital studies show that when PSWs are included in a nursing team, the patient mortality rate goes down.

“These employees make the least of any of the people on the nursing team, and you can afford to have many of them, and as a result, there are more interactions with patients,” he said.

In addition to fewer patients dying, Hurley said other benefits include patient mobility increases, rates of incontinence, fewer slips and falls and generally patient satisfaction increases.

Hospital workers and allies in the community initially met at the Zehrs on Eramosa Road in Guelph, Ont. before marching to the hospital.

Hurley said the union wants the provincial government to cover the $12 million deficit at Guelph General.

They also want the hospital to reconsider its decision to eliminate PSWs from its model of care.

He said the union is very concerned about what care will be like on nursing units at Guelph General without PSWs.

“A couple years ago, this government was taking pains to point out at every opportunity that people like them were heroes in the hospital system. And these same people now are being given notices,” he said.

Hurley said they will continue protesting for quite some time.