Quebec's health commissioner will investigate health system's failings during 1st wave - Action News
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Montreal

Quebec's health commissioner will investigate health system's failings during 1st wave

Quebec's health minister said the investigation does not amount to a public inquiry, but that the government would approve one if the commissioner, Joanne Castonguay, deems it necessary.

Government stops short of public inquiry, but leaves door open

Funeral home workers remove a body from the CHSLD Sainte-Dorothee in Laval, Que., last April. More than 100 residents of the long-term care home died after contracting COVID-19. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

The Quebec government has asked the province's health and welfare commissioner to investigate the devastating toll the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic took on the province's elderly.

Health Minister Christian Dub, who announced the mandate Wednesday, specified that it does not amount to a public inquiry, but that the government would approve one if the commissioner, Joanne Castonguay, deems it necessary.

"It's up to her to decide the level of research that is required," Dub said. "If in the end she decides she wants a public inquiry, that's her choice."

Thousands of people in the Quebec's long-term care home died as a result of COVID-19 during the first few months of the pandemic as the disease spread rapidly through residences, many of which were understaffed and ill-prepared.

Quebec Health and Welfare Commissioner Joanne Castonguay will begin her investigation immediately and must submit her report no later than September of next year. (Radio-Canada)

Focusing on the elderly population, Castonguay is being askedto examine the health system's response to the first wave of COVID-19 from four perspectives: performance, capacity, delivery of care and governance.

"We know there were many difficulties in caring for the elderly in our system, and the crisis exacerbated the issues," Dub said. "Not only for our government, but for Quebecers, it's important to shed a light on what happened."

Her work will be "deep and complementary to the other inquiries that are in progress," Dub said, citing the Quebec coroner's public inquiry into deaths in long-term care homes and an investigation by Quebec's ombudsperson.

Castonguay's investigation will look at how the entire health-care system functioned in caring for the elderly during the crisis, he said.

The commissioner will begin the investigation immediately and will submit her report no later than September 1, 2021, Dub said.

Castonguay will be supported by two experts: health economist Anne Lemay and Jean-Louis Denis, a professor at the Universit de Montral's school of public health.

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