MONTREAL, April 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Elderly residents left soiled and unfed after their caregivers fled the premises, 31 deaths in the space of a few weeks. A nursing home in Montreal has become the symbol of the terrible toll coronavirus is taking in Canada’s long-term care homes.
The bleak situation discovered at the Residence Herron, in the Montreal suburb of Dorval, has triggered an investigation for gross negligence and a national reckoning about the conditions in long-term care homes which account for half the country’s COVID-19 deaths.
Called to the rescue after most of the staff deserted the facility, health authorities found residents dehydrated, unfed for days and lying listless in bed, some covered in excrement. Others had fallen to the floor. Two deaths had gone unnoticed for several days.
At least five of the 31 recent deaths at the home have been officially attributed to the virus, with the others still being investigated by a coroner.
In announcing the fatalities this week, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said it appeared to be a case of “gross negligence”: Just two nurses had been left to care for 130 elderly residents.
Further fuelling public outrage, Canadian media also revealed that the home’s owner had once been convicted of drug trafficking, fraud and tax evasion.
For families, shock and anger mixed with the frustration of having been powerless to do anything, kept away by a ban on visits to the home to avoid contamination.
Local health authorities have now taken control of the facility, and a C$5 million class action has been launched against the owner alleging “inhumane and degrading maltreatment” for failing to ensure continued and adequate care.
The dire situation uncovered at the Residence Herron has come as little surprise for experts, who point to decades of insufficient funding for senior care – where the work is tough, and the pay rarely above minimum wage.
“We have neglected elderly care for a very long time,” Rejean Hebert, a former Quebec health minister.
Responding to public outrage, Legault has called for health care workers to help feed, wash and tend to elderly residents at long-term care facilities across the province, where the staff shortage is estimated at 2,000 people. He also topped up the pay of care workers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also Friday dispatched 125 military doctors and medics, requested by Quebec, to help personnel at the homes. — NNN-AGENCIES
