“You can’t leapfrog the hospital staffing crisis by pouring money into new infrastructure, while cutting existing hospital operating budgets in real terms. Scarborough is densely populated and underserviced in hospital care and these additional beds are needed, but not as an alternative to properly funding the existing services,” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE), which represents 46,000 hospital workers across the province. “Without their deficit being covered, SHN will have to cut staff and services- it’s that simple. In that respect this announcement is a cruel distraction, not a solution.”