(Quebec) We will have to wait a little longer to have the “missing piece of the puzzle” in the investigation by coroner Géhane Kamel on the management of CHSLDs during the first wave of the pandemic. The person in charge of the civil security of Quebec, who was to testify Monday, had a “setback”.
Martin Simard, Deputy Director General for Civil Security, was unable to speak as scheduled on Monday. The new date for his testimony has not yet been announced. Me Kamel called Mr. Simard, before the holiday break, a “missing piece of the puzzle” to understand what preparations were actually made between January and March 2020.
The highly anticipated testimony of the Minister responsible for Seniors and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais, was postponed for a day because of a problem with the availability of courtrooms at the Trois-Rivières courthouse. It will take place on Friday January 14 rather than Thursday the 13th.
In the meantime, Géhane Kamel hears the testimony of a senior official from Quebec, who explained the coordination mechanisms put in place by the Ministry of Health to deal with the pandemic. Pierre Lafleur, former assistant deputy minister at the Directorate-General for Coordination, Planning, Performance and Quality, notably oversaw Civil Security and chaired the famous daily meetings of the Network Management Committee, a body bringing together the Minister of Health and representatives of all the CISSS and CIUSSS in the province during the first wave of the pandemic.
These management committees were at the heart of the debates in November during the coroner’s hearings. The Minister of Health at the time, Danielle McCann, testified before the holidays that in January 2020 the CEOs of health establishments in Quebec were asked to prepare their plans to fight the pandemic, including in their CHSLDs , in anticipation of the coming of COVID-19. However, the minutes of the management committee meetings held in January and February do not mention the fact that the network received this instruction so early. It is only in the minutes of February 26, 2020 that we can read that “given the increase in the number of cases of people infected with the coronavirus, […] Civil security and the MSSS will henceforth be in preparatory mode for a pandemic ”.
The minutes of the Network Management Committee meeting of March 9, 2020 also indicate that it was decided to “update the pandemic plan developed for H1N1 and add a dedicated annex. to COVID-19 ”.
To Pierre Lafleur, Me Kamel explained that she wanted to know what had happened in this committee between January and mid-March 2020. “This is what we miss,” she said.
Mr. Lafleur underlined that the answer to his question was perhaps in the interventions of the Civil Security, where it happened “a lot of things”, he assured. However, we will have to wait for the testimony of the person in charge, Martin Simard, to find out more.