If no one is to blame, then who is responsible? This is the question that spontaneously comes to my mind with each answer given to the pointed questions of Coroner Géhane Kamel as part of the investigation into the hecatomb in a CHSLD during the first wave. I hope that she will go beyond her mandate and recommend the creation of a public inquiry that addresses, among other things, the hierarchy, understanding and execution of responsibilities within the Ministries of Health, Elders and Caregivers, CIUSSS and CISSS.
I reread the explanations of Dr Arruda, Natalie Rosebush and Mme McCann, and I get the feeling that they themselves do not yet grasp the magnitude of the disaster that could and should have been alleviated. On the defensive, the top decision-making team knew and fulfilled their share of responsibility by delegating, all of this expressed with a chill and a rationality to shiver down the spine.
In January 2020, thousands of seniors and their families were unaware that they would be doomed to go through a tragedy, cut off from each other. After the first wave, the survivors also suffered. […]
François Legault seems to multiply the diversions, as if he was seeking to divert the attention of the media from these clues, delivered to the coroner, of the monumental bankruptcy to protect the most vulnerable in our society.
What should make us react a lot more are the very critical opinions of Dr Réjean Hébert, from Dr Quoc Dinh Nguyen, from Dr Vinh-Kim Nguyen. One denounces systemic ageism, even the lack of revolt over the slaughter; the other condemns the overnight withdrawal of caregivers, while the nursing staff, overwhelmed and poorly protected, continued to spread the disease; the last concludes in a form of euthanasia without quotes among seniors who could have been saved by hospitalizing them without delay.
The management of the pandemic in CHSLDs raises too many thorny questions without valid justifications for decision-making. Caregivers, we have not listened to them or heard enough. They must be fully allowed to speak out and denounce the inhumanity of this shameful tragedy, for which we too bear some blame. It’s all about our aging.