Montreal Gazette

Leaving seniors exposed is no way to honour our elders

Quebec scrambles as the most vulnerable population faces disastrous consequenc­es

- ALLISON HANES ahanes@postmedia.com

Premier François Legault waxed poetic in recent days about the duty to protect Quebec’s elders from COVID-19, thanking the generation­s who built this province for making it fairer, richer and stronger.

But there is mounting evidence Quebec left its most vulnerable seniors dangerousl­y exposed during this pandemic with disastrous consequenc­es. And the government is now belatedly scrambling to contain the fallout.

The official numbers tell their own alarming story about the disproport­ionate toll the coronaviru­s takes on the elderly. As it now stands, about 90 per cent of 241 COVID-19 fatalities in Quebec are age 70 or older. A further nine per cent are between 60 and 69. Just under half of these seniors lived in publicly funded (and chronicall­y underfunde­d) CHSLDS.

However, whistleblo­wers from within some of the hardest-hit facilities contend the body count from in long-term care homes is far greater than what’s been reported. Over-stretched health workers have complained about lacking the personal protective equipment to do their jobs safely. And disturbing accounts have emerged about appalling conditions because of a huge volume of sick patients, staff shortages and overwork. In a private Dorval nursing home that was already under trusteeshi­p, residents were found dead in their beds, dehydrated and in overflowin­g soiled diapers.

This is no way to honour Quebec’s elders.

COVID-19 has detonated like a bomb in long-term care homes.

The CHSLD Ste-dorothée in Laval has been hammered with more than 100 confirmed cases among its 174 residents and more than a dozen deaths at last count. Earlier this week, COVID-19 was present in 46 of 294 long-term care facilities on the Island of Montreal, including the CHSLD Lasalle, the Alzheimer’s ward at the Jewish Eldercare Centre, Manoir Verdun, l’institut universita­ire de gériatrie de Montréal and the Centre d’hébergemen­t Alfred Desrochers in Côte-desneiges.

Dr. Horacio Arruda, Quebec’s director of public health, said the situation is critical in six residences, including some of the aforementi­oned facilities in Montreal. These six alone account for roughly one-third of Quebec’s total COVID -19 deaths, which stood at 241 Friday. But grim reports are emerging about many more.

Arruda pointed out patients in long-term care facilities in Quebec are already frail and ailing, so the carnage there is not unexpected. But anyone familiar with the state of nursing homes in Quebec prior to the pandemic — particular­ly the public CHSLDS — would say this catastroph­e was entirely predictabl­e for other reasons.

These are the same places where patients were lucky if they got a bath once a week, where families complained of loved ones being left in dirty diapers, where meals consisted of unappetizi­ng gruel, where staff shortages meant heavy workloads and double shifts, where burnout further reduced the ranks of employees willing to do arduous work for low pay, where morale was low, where local management and accountabi­lity were abolished as part of the previous Liberal government’s disastrous “réforme Barrette.”

There were plenty of cracks in the system before, but like an earthquake, COVID-19 split them wide open.

The elderly were quickly cut off from the outside world to protect them from the coronaviru­s, but it was already too late to prevent the virus from getting in.

Once inside, it ran rampant, overwhelme­d staff and exacerbate­d the personnel shortages. Some caregivers did shifts in multiple nursing homes, which upends the logic of social distancing in place for the general public. And if morale was low before, imagine fighting a losing battle against death every day while also putting your own health at risk.

Many weak elderly patients were moved out of hospitals to increase capacity for an influx of COVID -19 cases. But by sending them to ill-equipped, already over-burdened long-term care homes, their fates were sealed.

Legault denied Friday this was an error.

But the government is, neverthele­ss, trying to shore up its defences. It has freed up millions to top up the pay of caregivers in both the public and private system, reassigned 450 doctors and 1,000 nurses from the hospital front to nursing homes, appointed expert panels, promised an influx of PPE and announced it will systematic­ally test every resident for COVID-19.

“We’re going to do everything we can to save the maximum number of people in CHSLDS,” Legault vowed.

But the damage may have already been done.

Quebec deserves credit for taking muscular measures to prevent hospitals from being swamped by an excess of COVID -19 cases.

However, this effort may have come at the expense of safeguardi­ng the elderly. Let’s hope the extraordin­ary reinforcem­ents now being sent to longterm care homes arrive in time to save our seniors.

 ?? JOHN MAHONEY ?? The Centre d’hébergemen­t de Sainte-dorothée in Laval has had more than 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases among its 174 residents and more than a dozen deaths. COVID-19 has detonated like a bomb in long-term care homes, writes Allison Hanes.
JOHN MAHONEY The Centre d’hébergemen­t de Sainte-dorothée in Laval has had more than 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases among its 174 residents and more than a dozen deaths. COVID-19 has detonated like a bomb in long-term care homes, writes Allison Hanes.
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