Officials too quick to blame COVID-19 for deaths at Herron residence: witness

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By The Canadian Press Staff

Posted September 14, 2021 2:59 PM

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A nursing assistant said during a coroner’s inquest on Tuesday that health officials were too quick to blame COVID-19 for deaths at a long-term care home in the Montreal area while some of them were in fact caused by dehydration and malnutrition.

The assistant nurse who worked at Residence Herron says facility officials, whether management or public health officials, found it easier to cite COVID-19 than to admit that some residents have died due to a lack of staff.

The witness, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, also criticized staff who quit their jobs in the first wave of the pandemic when there was no one else to look after them. residents.

Read more: Herron Residence lacked staff and supplies before COVID-19 pandemic, says Quebec coroner

And she said regional health authority managers who came to help provided conflicting instructions and were not at the residents’ bedside.

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The witness also described a chaotic situation that lasted for several days as authorities attempted to determine who was responsible for the management of Herron in late March and early April 2020.

The coroner’s mandate is to investigate 53 deaths in six long-term care homes and a retirement home, including 47 in Herron during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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