Failures of long-term care system laid bare at inquest into Quebec nursing home's COVID crisis

A total of 47 people died at the Herron long-term care home in the Montreal suburb of Dorval during the pandemic's first wave in the spring of 2020.

There were higher death tolls at other long-term care homes in the province and beyond, and many of the documented problems — a shortage of staff, a lack of personal protective equipment — were present elsewhere, too.

But the appalling conditions experienced by many of Herron's 133 residents, detailed in news reports in early April 2020, shook the public and prompted larger questions about the state of the long-term care system in Quebec and across the country.

"What happened at Herron wasn't an isolated incident — it's happened throughout Quebec and in every province in Canada," Moira Davies, whose father, Stanley E. Pinnell, died at Herron, told the coroner's inquest into the home. 

Davis called for a national inquiry into senior-care residences and an end to private facilities.

The inquest into the deaths at Herron took place over three weeks and included testimony from nurses, doctors, officials with the local health authority, the owner of the privately run home, and the families of residents.

It was scheduled to end Thursday, but coroner Géhane Kamel extended the hearings after families of residents who died said they still have questions after hearing contradictory testimony about what happened at the home.