(Quebec) The Parti Québécois (PQ) holds the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, responsible for the contingency plan that would have led to the transport by ambulance and the death of a 65-year-old man on Tuesday.
The patient who had stomach aches had to be transported 135 km by ambulance because the Senneterre hospital emergency room has been closed from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. since October 18.
The opposition was outraged Thursday morning at what it describes as bush medicine.
At a press conference Thursday morning, the parliamentary leader of the PQ, Joël Arseneau, recalled that the oppositions had proposed alternative solutions to the closure of the emergency, but that Mr. Dubé had endorsed a contingency plan.
According to Mr. Arseneau, it is Mr. Dubé who is responsible for the current provision of primary health care.
The PQ parliamentary leader is asking for a coroner’s inquest, as are Québec solidaire (QS) and the Liberal Party (PLQ).
In a press conference, the head of the PLQ, Dominique Anglade, affirmed that this death is the consequence of the closure of the emergency.
However, it was the government that decided to close the emergency, she continued.
She recalled that at the start of this crisis, the mayor of Senneterre had only been able to obtain a few minutes of meeting with the Minister of Health.