My name is Cheryl MacKay and I am a Personal Care assistant (PCA) also known as a Personal Support Worker (PSW) at Trillium Health Partners.  

Trillium Health Partners encompasses three sites- Mississauga Hospital, Queensway Hospital, and Credit Valley Hospital which came together as one in 2011

My dream has been to work in a hospital and after a year and a half of applying, in February 2023 my dream became a reality.

It has been a pleasure working for Trillium Health Partners and I have been privileged to work along side fantastic Nurses, PCA’s, Managers, Porters, Hospitality Associates, Students, Interns, and Physicians. We work together as a team to provide the best possible care, and taking away one of us, greatly disrupts and hinders the level of patient care.

As a PCA, our job is to deliver care through social and emotional support, assist with activities of daily living including communicating, eating, toileting, grooming, transferring, and making and changing bedding. PCA’s are responsible for charting and communicating with Nurses and Team members that are in charge of care with information, questions and concerns as they arise.

Our hospitals are seeing increased visits to the ER, this is not only because of illness or injury, but because of the program Doug Ford implemented which in turn has many family Drs having to shut down their practices leaving more people without family Drs and more visits to the ER. With that comes an increase in wait time, frustrated patients and staff that are doing the very best they can with being short staffed often making the work load each nurse has more and more.

Just recently I was informed that the PCA’s at Credit Valley Hospital will be without a job as of March 31, 2024. The reason given for the termination of 85 PCA’s at Credit Valley Hospital is due to us “not being in the budget”, However, PCA’s remain at Mississauga Hospital and Queensway Hospital. This decision is going to immensely impact patient care in all aspects. Nurses will have to take on even more and take on the role that the PCA’s were doing as well as preform their duties within their scope of practice, patients will have longer wait times, porters will be delayed in transferring patients, fall risks will increase, and the sick calls for staff will increase due to burnout.

I am fighting to keep the PCA’s at Trillium Health Partners – Credit Valley. They are an essential role in patient care and should be in the budget just as much as Nurses, Doctors, Managers, Porters, Hospitality Associates, Students, Interns, and Housekeeping.

How are we “Better Together” when one hospital is removing a vital role in healthcare and the two other hospitals are not?

We are supposed to be united as one to provide the best possible care and services we can.

This is not united.

This is not the best possible care.

This is not “Better Together.”

This is supposed to be about providing the best care possible, and removing the PCA’s is not providing the best possible care.

I ask you to fight with me and have our voices heard so that the PCA’s at Trillium Health Partners-Credit Valley will remain.

On the site it is stated that the public has a right to know where publicly funded money goes…don’t you think the public should also know where publicly funded money isn’t going?

Take a stand with me and fight for patient care. Sign the petition to keep PCA’s at Credit Valley Hospital, cause after all…

We are better together!