LEGAULT FLOATS IDEA OF NATIONALIZING PRIVATE CHSLDS
Deeply concerned about the COVID-19 crisis in Montreal’s long-term care centres, Quebec Premier François Legault grilled the city’s most senior health managers during a two-hour, closed-door meeting late Thursday afternoon.
Perhaps the most surprising development out of the meeting is that the premier floated the idea of nationalizing the province’s privately run long-term care centres, or CHSLDS. The premier indicated previously that he was open to the idea in response to a question by a reporter at a news conference last month, but on Thursday he addressed it more fully in a debate with the health managers, according to a source at the meeting.
In his first appearance in Montreal since the pandemic, Legault quickly took charge of the meeting downtown as Health Minister Danielle Mccann sat silently. The premier took copious notes and quizzed the executive directors of Montreal’s five regional health authorities, each known in French as a CIUSSS.
“What he’s thinking is whether or not all the long-term care facilities should be public, or whether they should all more formally come under the CIUSSSES rather than remain private,” the source said. “That’s what I think he’s trying to figure out.”
Is Quebec’s entrepreneurial, free-market premier truly considering nationalizing the private CHSLDS?
“Well, he’s pontificating,” the source replied. “He’s not saying that’s what he wants to do. He’s just throwing out ideas.”
This led to a debate between the premier and the managers about private-vs.-public health care, with no clear decision made at the end of the meeting. Still, the session did signal a potential shift in the premier’s thinking about the province’s network of private institutions for the elderly.
On Saturday, April 11, the premier was supposed to take a break from his daily COVID-19 news conferences. But Legault instead rushed to hold a news conference that day after the Montreal Gazette reported the mass desertion by staff at the private Résidence Herron in Dorval as well as the deaths of 27 people living there. The premier revealed that 31 residents had died at the Herron in a short period of time.
Since then, every CHSLD and seniors’ residence in the province has come under close scrutiny, especially those that are privately owned. In addition to the Herron, the private Vigi Mont-royal CHSLD has been embroiled in controversy amid allegations of unsanitary conditions and poorly trained staff. Radio-canada reported on Thursday that every resident at the Town of Mount Royal institution has fallen ill from COVID-19, and that 70 have died from the respiratory illness.
Also in attendance at Thursday’s meeting were deputy health minister Yvan Gendron as well as the executive directors of the Mcgill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Centre hospitalier de l’université de Montréal (CHUM). But Dr. Pierre Gfeller, head of the MUHC, and Dr. Fabrice Brunet, in charge of the CHUM, had nothing to say since the entire meeting focused on CHSLDS, which are outside of their jurisdiction.
The premier engaged in spirited exchanges with each CIUSSS executive director, most notably with Lynne Mcvey, who heads the West Island CIUSSS. Mcvey’s organization placed the Herron under trusteeship. Mcvey has also had to bring under control outbreaks at a number of public and private CHSLDS as well as at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, the Lakeshore and Lasalle hospitals.
“She held up pretty well,” the source said of Mcvey. “He pushed her (with questions). At one point she was sort of stumbling over numbers, but all in all she did a credible job.”
Each CIUSSS executive director defended their management of the CHSLD outbreaks, arguing that the coronavirus probably was introduced into those institutions by asymptomatic nurses and orderlies. This was in response to a question by Legault about why so many outbreaks occurred if staff were wearing personal protective equipment.
Thursday’s meeting follows criticism that Legault had taken a relatively hands-off approach to the crisis in Montreal, which has reported more than 20,600 COVID -19 cases to date. In addition, 2,154 people have died, more than 80 per cent of them in CHSLDS and seniors’ residences.
On Wednesday evening, authorities resumed publication of the daily updates of cases in CHSLDS. Legault himself yanked those updates at the end of April, saying he found problems with the way the data was being compiled. Thursday’s update showed that across Quebec, a total of 2,369 people have died from COVID -19 in CHSLDS, up from 2,331 the day before.
However, an analysis of the records shows that authorities have double-counted deaths and cases at some CHSLDS, while under-reporting the tallies in other institutions.