Faced with the dissatisfaction expressed by coroner Géhane Kamel, Quebec will give more than it asks for and will send it thousands of “watch reports” written by its inspectors after their visits to CHSLDs during the first wave of the pandemic.
• Read also: The PQ suspects Quebec of having fabricated false documents
• Read also: Coroner Kamel dissatisfied with inspection reports submitted by Quebec
At the Salon Bleu on Tuesday, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, faced a barrage of questions from the opposition parties alerted by the comments made the day before by the coroner.
When the hearings of his inquiry into CHSLD deaths resumed on Monday, Géhane Kamel was dissatisfied with the documents provided so far by the Ministry of Health, a “blank grid” and an Excel file “which records what would have been sent by the inspectors ”.
Instead, she wanted to receive the original inspection reports, documents whose actual existence created controversy after a senior official suggested that there were no copies, a claim quickly denied by the ministry.
More than she asks for
Accused by the opposition parties of having fabricated a document, Christian Dubé therefore defended himself by asserting that the coroner had received a “summary table” of the watch reports drafted for the establishments targeted by his investigation, and this, in order to “help” him.
Faced with the outcry created by this affair, Quebec will finally open its books and send all the “watch reports” concerning CHSLDs drawn up during the first wave, ie around 1,200 documents, insisted the minister.
“We decided, for the sake of transparency, to hand everything over to him. And, if ever she wants more, we commit to doing so, because we also want to shed light on the information we received and the information we went to seek. . “
However, in the evening, his cabinet adjusted the situation by asserting that the figure of 1200 was not entirely correct. Of the approximately 11,000 visits made to establishments (RPA, RI-RTF, etc.) during the first wave, 1,600 were devoted solely to CHSLDs, from April to September 2020.
But the “watch reports” sent to the coroner correspond only to the period from April to June 2020, it is specified, and therefore do not represent all the documentation held by the Ministry of Health.
It is also impossible to know if a “watch report” was drawn up after each of the 1600 visits, the Ministry of Health being the body that holds this information.
In the evening, Tuesday, the latter had still not answered many questions asked on this file since the day before.
Recall that the Assistant Deputy Minister for Seniors, Natalie Rosebush, the senior official at the origin of the controversy, is due to return to testify before the coroner on Wednesday.