The expert COVID-19 team for older persons of the Quebec Health and Social Services Ministry
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The expert COVID‑19 team for older persons of the Quebec Health and Social Services Ministry Olivier Beauchet1,2,3,4 Received: 20 May 2020 / Accepted: 3 June 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
To the Editor: Recently, Hogan et al. underscored the key role played by geriatricians in the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada [1]. They asked the question about “…what impact the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will have on the future practice of geriatrics in Canada”. In Quebec, which is the Canadian province that is most affected by the COVID19 pandemic, geriatricians and gerontologists are working in partnership with the Health and Social Services Ministry, as well as with the Older Persons and Caregivers Ministry to find solutions for better care of Quebec’s older population in the short, medium and long terms [2]. This partnership was identified by the Quebec government early in the COVID19 pandemic as an action of central importance due to the numerous Quebec long-term care (LTC) facilities struggling under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, with at least 150 of them reporting confirmed COVID-19 cases in LTC on April 6, 2020 [3]. Older persons, especially frail older adults living in long-term care facilities are significantly at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and developing severe complications [1–3]. They are also at risk for morbidity decompensation due to the breakdown of their care continuum caused by COVID-19 health care reorganization * Olivier Beauchet [email protected] 1
Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital and Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, McGill University, 3755 chemin de la Côte‑Sainte‑Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada
2
Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Chair in Geriatric Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
3
Centre of Excellence on Longevity of McGill integrated University Health and Social Services Network, Montreal, QC, Canada
4
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
and the homebound confinement. Social distancing, which includes physical distancing and being homebound, is used to describe the practice of maintaining space between individuals and is an effective intervention to reduce the spread of COVID-19 [4]. Nevertheless, this key prevention strategy may provoke adverse consequences in the older communitydwelling population [5]. Quebec is a vast Canadian province where the population is aging rapidly compared to other provinces. Quebec has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada. As of May 18, 2020, there were 43,627 COVID-19 cases in Quebec. To ensure the control of the COVID-19 spread in older persons, the Minister of Health and Social Services, Danielle McCann, and the Minister for Older Persons and Caregivers, Marguerite Blais, have appointed a geriatrician as special advisor on April 10, 2020 [3]. This geriatrician works with a team of COVID-19 e
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