COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec was marked by images from long-term care homes: isolated seniors peering out from windows, bodies in zippered bags on stretchers exiting imposing brick buildings.The pandemic tore a destructive path through Quebec’s provincially run seniors facilities, killing thousands and exposing systemic flaws in a network long understaffed, under-resourced and undersupervised.
But the health crisis also provided an opportunity to re-examine Quebec’s approach to long-term care and to re-evaluate models that might work better, two health experts told The Canadian Press.“(The pandemic) was a catastrophe, but it was revelatory and it can help us to move forward,” Francine Ducharme, a geriatrics researcher and nursing sciences.