"The way we treat our seniors is unacceptable" won the Quebec premier. François Legault (Coalitionvenir Québec, center right) has given up his Easter weekend to come and report in person, Saturday April 11, to the press, about a situation, according to him, "Appalling".
In a private seniors' residence located in Dorval, a suburb of Montreal, recently placed under the supervision of Public Health, " we learned that 31 people have died since March 13 ", did he declare. Thirty-one deaths out of 150 residents, five of which are already attributed to Covid-19. Public Health is currently trying to determine the cause of the other deaths.
The government, for its part, has launched a criminal investigation against the establishment’s management, "Guilty of gross negligence", insisted the Prime Minister. She is suspected of not having taken adequate measures at the start of the epidemic, of having refused to transmit the medical files of the deceased residents and, above all, of having left these retirees in deplorable sanitary conditions.
"Hungry and thirsty"
Caregivers, who arrived as reinforcements at the end of March in the residence, testified of "Visions of nightmares". “Patients were hungry and thirsty. Some had been abandoned with their soiled diapers. Bandages have been waiting to be changed for ages ” related a nurse in The Press, April 10. The Prime Minister himself confirmed that a large part of the staff employed by this private residence "Had left his post". Revelations that prompted several families to rush under the windows of the retirement home in an attempt to see and support their confined relatives.
The publicity given by François Legault to the proven dysfunctions of this private establishment aroused indignation and fright in Quebec, and provoked a vast debate around the living conditions reserved for seniors. An emergency inspection was launched in the forty private non-contracted retirement homes in the province.
Not all seniors' residences managed in such an unworthy manner but the public authorities recognize that the situation is "critical" in at least six establishments in the Montreal region hit by an excess mortality. The lack of staff – underpaid compared to the public sector – increases the risks for an elderly population particularly affected by the Covid-19. In Quebec, 90% of the 328 victims of the virus registered on April 12, were 70 years old and over.
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