Who is a user?

A user of the Health and Social Services network is not only a person who is ill: one is born a user, and one will die a user.

A user includes everyone who has, at one time or another during their life, used the network’s services. This could be the pregnant woman, the newborn child, the adolescent in the Youth center, the person who wants to stop smoking, the handicapped person, the youth with TDHD, the employee on sick leave, the person diagnosed with cancer, the person living with an addiction, the senior who lives at home and receives homecare support services from their CLSC or from their loved ones. In a nutshell, it is the 8,000,000 Quebecers that the RPCU represents.

A user of the Health and Social Services network is not only a person who is ill: one is born a user, and one will die a user. A user includes everyone who has, at one time or another during their life, used the network’s services.

The Users Rights

1. Right to information
2. Right to receive services
3. Right to choose a professional or institution
4. Right to receive appropriate care according to one’s health status
5. Right to consent to care or to refuse care
6. Right to actively participate in decision-making
7. Right to be accompanied, assisted and represented
8. Right to shelter/accommodation
9. Right to receive services in English
10. Right to access one’s User’s file
11. Right to the confidentiality of one’s User’s file
12. Right to lodge a complaint

As users of the Health and Social Services network, we have rights recognized by the Act respecting health services and social services (LSSSS). But a user also has other rights.

Fundamental Human rights:
The Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms sets out the fundamental rights of the individual, among which can be found the following:

• Right to life and personal integrity
• Right to the safeguard of one’s dignity
• Right to respect for one’s private life
• Right to non-disclosure of confidential information
• Right to integrity and inviolability
• Right to equal recognition of rights

The Act respecting end-of-life care:
Includes access to palliative care and medical aid in dying, as well as the possibility for establishing an advance medical directives regime.

The Civil Code of Québec also provides for rights. Fundamental rights apply everywhere including in Health and Social Services institutions.

If you have deposited a complaint with the McGill University Health Centre Ombudsman / Complaints Commissioner and have not received the commissioner’s conclusions within 45 days, you can contact the Quebec Ombudsman.

Filing a Complaint

Help With Filing Your Complaint

The CAAPs, (Centres d’assistance et d’accompagnement aux plaintes (complaint assistance and support centres)
help users and their representatives file complaints involving health and social services. To contact your local CAAP, website of the Fédération des centres d’assistance et d’accompagnement aux plaintes (federation of complaint assistance and support centres or FCAAP) (website in French only).

The CAAP can do the following things:

• provide information about the complaint process
• help you write your complaint or write it for you
• accompany you throughout the complaint process
• encourage conversations with the institution involved to help find a solution

Where to File

MUHC Users and In-patients’ Committees

The rights of the users are defended by the Users and In-patients’ committees of each of the Health and Social Services institution.  The committee can tell you how to file a complaint and help you through the complaint process.

CONTACT THE MUHC USERS COMMITTEE

MUHC Ombudsman – Complaints Commissioner

Each site of the MUHC has an ombudsman to investigate and help to resolve complaints deposited by the users. Complaints  can be verbal or written. If necessary, you can ask the commissioner to help you file your complaint. The commissioner must help you through the process.

The commissioner then examines the file, and sends you conclusions about your complaint within 45 days after receiving your complaint. If you do not receive the commissioner’s conclusions by then, you can contact the Quebec Ombudsman.

Your file is kept confidential at all times.

CONTACT THE OMBUDSMAN – COMPLAINTS COMMISSIONER

The Quebec Ombudsman

The Quebec Ombudsman (Le protecteur de citoyen) intervenes to prevent or correct infringement of rights, abuse, negligence, inaction or errors that affect citizens in their dealings with:

• A department or an agency of the Government of Québec.
• An institution within the health and social services network (generally as a second instance).

CONTACT THE QUEBEC OMBUDSMAN

Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission

Fundamental human rights are defended by the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse
(Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission).

CONTACT THE COMMISSION

Sources;  Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, Educaloi, Le protecteur de citoyen, Regroupement provincial des comités des usagers.