The hearings of the coroner on the CHSLD Herron made it possible to hear things which “go beyond what is humanly acceptable in a society like ours”.
It is with this shocking sentence that Coroner Géhane Kamel concluded on Tuesday the factual part of her hearings on CHSLDs (Residential and long-term care centers) and RPAs (Private residences for the elderly) on which she has looked since last February.
“No human being should end his life in such deplorable conditions,” she added.
In fact, several witnesses during the Herron investigation recounted, during the first wave of COVID-19, dehydrated seniors, who had not eaten, whose diapers were soiled.
Also, the staff, scared or themselves ill or awaiting the results of a screening test were missing. And Herron had problems recruiting labor before the pandemic.
Accountable and responsible
Earlier in the day, in a well-felt outing, the coroner had reminded the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and the CHSLD Herron that they were both “accountable” and “responsible” for elderly people who had been placed in their care.
The coroner thus expressed her weariness to see representatives of the CIUSSS point the finger at the management of the CHSLD Herron for various problems that were experienced and Herron to do the same with the CIUSSS.
“What I would like to finish today is the kind of loop: ‘It’s not me, it’s Herron; it’s not Herron, it’s the CIUSSS ”. You were both, Herron and the CIUSSS, responsible for these elderly people. There are 47 people who died, including the CIUSSS and Herron are responsible for their deaths, ”said the coroner.
She was quick to tell the lawyers for the various parties before her not to take the word “accountable” in its “first sense”, but to understand that both parties had a responsibility towards these vulnerable seniors.
Doctors and employees
The Deputy President and CEO of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Najia Hachimi-Idrissi, affirmed that the CIUSSS did not have the leverage, the authority, to demand that the three doctors Herron come on site to treat residents or even to witness deaths. These Herron doctors were doing teleconsultation at the time.
Ms. Hachimi-Idrissi also maintained that the CIUSSS, at the beginning, could not force unionized network employees to come and work at the CHSLD Herron.
However, a ministerial decree of March 21, 2020 allowed the CIUSSS to do so, while meeting certain conditions.
It is for this reason, she affirmed, that it is only managers of the CIUSSS who landed in Herron, as of March 29, 2020 and in the days that followed. However, many had nursing training.
But by dint of questions, she ended up qualifying, asserting that the CIUSSS first wanted to call on volunteer employees, because on other occasions, elsewhere, when it had wanted to coerce unionized employees, it was found with resignations.
We also learned that when the screening of 74 residents was finally implemented in Herron on April 11 and 12, 50 of them were positive.
The idea of calling the police even before
The hearings ended with the second part of the testimony of Lynne McVey, CEO of the CIUSSS.
She argued that the idea of calling the police, after seeing on April 10 that the death toll was not 13 but 31, started to germinate in her mind as early as March 29, when the CIUSSS landed at Herron.
Herron had only half the staff he was required to have, by virtue of his employee lists. And that was before employees took time off due to COVID-19.
She justified her call to the police, made on the night of April 10 to 11, by the fact that “it took us light”, since several reports received since the CIUSSS had disembarked on March 29, reported various breaches, in particular at the CHSLD pharmacy.