Inside this week QUIZ Only one coroner Exceptional year Christmas Quiz - page 16 on the Gaspé Peninsula for tourism on the Gaspé Contract 400119680 VOLUME 43 / NO 47 / NOVEMBER 29, 2017 $1.50 (Tax included) PASPEBIAC CLSC: Investigation into possible connection between patient death and doctor shortage Gilles Gagné PASPEBIAC: - The Ministry of Health and the Gaspé Peninsula Health Agency are conducting an investigation in an attempt to determine the circumstances surrounding the death of a patient during a transfer between his Bonaventure home, the Paspebiac CLSC and the Maria Hospital on November 23. He was suffering from cardiac arrest. The patient was brought to the Paspebiac CLSC at 11:45 p.m. but there was no doctor on duty between mid- night and the following morning, November 24 at 8 a.m. The nurse on duty al- legedly informed the para- medics who had driven the patient to the Paspebiac CLSC that there was no gen- eral practitioner at the emer- gency at the time. A day later, Photo: J. Imhoff she was suspended until fur- Between June 1 and mid-November, the Paspebiac CLSC was unable to fill 28 general practitioner shifts at the emergency. ther notice. The paramedics conse- quently drove the patient to Highway 132 bridge closure coming is unacceptable (…) patients. saved, had a general practi- Maria hospital, where he was between New Richmond and It is bad decision-making.” The Paspebiac CLSC has tioner been on duty in Paspe- pronounced dead. One of the Gesgapegiag. He also added that “medi- been plagued with holes in its biac. paramedics tried to resusci- On Saturday, November cine, especially emergency emergency schedule since the Between June 1 and mid- tate the patient during the du- 25, the Gaspé Peninsula medicine, doesn’t end with a spring. It has been a problem November, the Paspebiac ration of the transfer, which Health Agency, through a working shift.” for years, with certain peri- CLSC was unable to fill 28 probably took slightly more press release, and Health Minister Barrette and the ods posing a bigger shortage general practitioner shifts at than an hour. Minister Gaétan Barrette, in Health Agency announced than others. The shortage has the emergency. The authori- It takes at least 15 minutes an interview from the Liberal the same day that the emer- been amplified since June be- ties were trying to fill 20 ad- to get to Paspebiac from Party convention, declared gency service of the Paspe- cause two doctors are on ma- ditional shifts in December Bonaventure, and at least 50 that an investigation had been biac CLSC will remain open, ternity leave and a third one and three more at the end of minutes are required to cover launched to shed light on the with a general practitioner on is off due to an accident. November at the time. the distance between the Paspebiac emergency case. duty, for an undetermined pe- There are usually eight doc- Month in, month out, the Paspebiac CLSC and Maria Minister Barrette declared riod of time. That doctor will tors assigned to the CLSC. Paspebiac CLSC and the re- Hospital, especially consider- to journalist Patricia Cloutier, only see the patients who ar- It is too early to assume gional Health Agency have to ing the 11.5 additional kilo- of Le Soleil, that “closing an rive by ambulance. Nurses that the life of the Bonaven- fill 51 doctor shifts at the metres stemming from the emergency when a patient is will be available for walk in ture man could have been Paspebiac emergency. News Only one coroner briefs on the Gaspé peninsula Good news, but... Thierry Haroun Thierry Haroun GASPÉ PENINSULA: - Spec GASPÉ PENINSULA: - The third Quebec Government Plan has recently learned that there’s to Fight Poverty and Exclusion which may include a Minimum only one coroner to cover the Revenue Guarantee (MRG) program is being questioned by entire Gaspé Peninsula’s suspi- many community organizations, including the Collectif gaspésien cious deaths. But there’s noth- pour un Québec sans pauvreté. “When looking at the past three ing to worry about confirmed years, we have serious doubts about the intention of the mat- Québec Chief Coroner, Cather- ter by the actual government which is guided by a neoliberal ine Rudel-Tessier. way of thinking in terms of state governing. It’s not bad news The Journal de Montréal but the point is that an MRG must not become a pretext for pri- recently published an article in vatizing service or increasing fees on public services. Another which it is said that the Quebec thing we must make sure of is that if an MRG is voted that it Government has just hired 25 will be offered to those in need without any conditions,’’ says new coroners in order to re- the spokesperson of the Collectif, Jacynthe Leblanc. She added duce investigation delays. The that to get out of poverty in Quebec, the annual revenue must article also mentioned that be more that $17,700. there are enough coroners in the Quebec regions. Spec made that verification with the Que- bec Chief Coroner, Catherine Rudel-Tessier, who has pointed Photo: courtesy Québec Chief Coroner out that there’s only one coro- Catherine Rudel-Tessier ner for our region and that she’s based in Gaspé. Even mentioning a number. “As you would be very interesting be- though this situation doesn’t know, the Gaspé Peninsula is cause we could, therefore, have worry Ms. Rudel-Tessier, she’s very spread out. It's obvious, what we call proximity coro- nevertheless in favour of re- that having more coroners in ners. In those cases they know cruiting more coroners without different places along the Coast their surroundings better. But don't get me wrong, that does- n't mean that coroners who work at a distance are doing a lesser job,” she added. 60 cases per year Access limited to On the Gaspé Coast, the lat- Message to nonprofit est numbers show that the authidhorized persons coroner analyzes on average, organizations 60 cases per year, “which is from Monday to Friday fair,” points out Catherine Forillon National Parkk is Rudel-Tessier. disposing of assets In the province, the coro- During the winter season, access will ners analyze on average 4,500 cases per year. A full-time be limited to authorized persons coroner analyzes 250 cases, on Forillon National Park is disposing of Monday to Friday on roads beyond average, per year. It should be offfffiice ffuurniture as part of an asset the gates in the North and South noted that a coroner addresses rationalization and streamlining process. deaths that are suspicious, ob- sectors. Exceptionally, these roads will scure, suicides, car accidents, be plowed but cannot be used ffoor winter sudden deaths and so forth. “'I Any nonproffiit organization interested in would like to have more coro- activities, as ongoing work will cause ners in the Gaspé region be- acquiring offfffiice ffuurniture should send an higher heavy macchhinery trafffffiic. cause if the only coroner you email to [email protected] have decided not to practice beffoore December 22, 2017. We will then anymore, all the cases would Users can access these seccttors on be addressed from the Lower send you a list of wwhhat is available ffoor St-Lawrence region or Quebec Saturday and Sunday only. WWhhen donation as well as the procedure ffoor City. Moreover, its an addition of 60 more cases for a coroner necessary, please use the designated taking possession off it. Donations will be and they already have plenty to paths, such as in the Petit-Gaspé made on a ffiirst-come, ffiirst-served basis. do.” In addition, it should be campground. This measure will take said that the Quebec Ombuds- man has recently criticized the Thank you ffoor your cooperaattion. efffffeecctt as soon as snoww is on the ground. Quebec Chief Coroner for de- lays that are too long. It cur- rently takes 11 months Thank you ffoor your cooperaattion. between the death of a person ForillonNP 418-368-5505 and the final report from the @ForillonNP parkscanada.gc.ca/Forillon ForillonNP 418-368-5505 coroner. The target is six @ForillonNP parkscanada.gc.ca/Forillon months. “We are well aware of this situation and we have a lot of work in front of us in order to reach that target,” admits Catherine Rudel-Tessier. Page 2, November 29, 2017 - Spec Police report Julie Laurencelle, 26, from the Val d’Espoir sector of Percé, charged with the August 6 hit and run causing the death of Luce Hautcoeur, 62, from Sainte-Thérère-de-Gaspé, ap- peared at the Percé courthouse on November 27 for the ori- entation and declaration in her case. The orientation and declaration was put over to January 22, 2018. At approximately 9:25 p.m. on August 6 the victim was crossing Route 132 when she was struck and killed by the ve- hicle driven by the accused. The accused turned herself in a few hours after the accident. The accused had appeared at the Percé courthouse on Au- Photo: G. Gagné gust 7, was remanded in custody until August 8 at which After taking the oath, the new prefect of the Bonaventure MRC, Éric Dubé, left, was congratu- time she was released on bail on a $300 deposit, was prohib- lated by outgoing prefect Jean-Guy Poirier. ited to drive a motor vehicle and was ordered to remit her driver’s permit to the court. Éric Dubé new prefect ***** On November 27, Jerome Viktor Legacé, 23, from Ste André de Restigouche charged with the August 22, 2017 pre- of Bonaventure MRC meditated murder of Fabrice Durand, 23, from France, ap- peared at the New Carlisle courthouse before Quebec Court Gilles Gagné under the impression that they great people, who provided Judge Janick Poirier.