June 8, 2001 — Le Protecteur du citoyen

Bill on the Health and Social Services Ombudsman: the Québec Ombudsman issues her recommendations.

Québec City, June 8, 2001 - The Québec Ombudsman, Ms Pauline Champoux-Lesage, is submitting today before the Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs her views and recommendations concerning Bill 27 which commissions a Health and Social Services Ombudsman in replacement of the Complaints Commissioner.

Preoccupied by efficient services that the public may call for, the Québec Ombudsman has pleaded numerous times in favour of the necessity to modify the enquiry into complaints system for health and social services patrons. Ms Champoux-Lesage is happy that the bill improves and makes more efficient the complaints process for patrons of the health and social services system especially at the local level. She observes satisfactorily that jurisdiction has taken charge of new areas to better adapt itself to the new system's configuration and to process complaints with improved transparency where medical, dental and pharmaceutical treatment are concerned.

However she regrets that the Health and Social Services Ombudsman remains answerable to the Minister of Health and Social Services. The new Ombudsman will in fact be nominated by the Government and will answer to the Minister of Health and Social Services, as it was the case for the Complaints Commissioner. Last October, the Québec Ombudsman pleaded before members of the Clair Commission, on the necessity for patrons of the health system to be able to lodge complaints before a body free from Government bias. Ms Champoux-Lesage remains convinced that the Health and Social Services Ombudsman should have the attributes of a parliamentary Ombudsman and therefore be nominated by and report to the National Assembly. If not, the actual title of Complaints Commissioner for Health and Social Services should be maintained to avoid confusing the public with the Québec Ombudsman.

According to the Québec Ombudsman, the efficiency of a complaints system is partly tied to the confidence it instils in the public. To effectively instil the credibility of the new role players involved, in this case the local Commissioner's, the regional Commissioner's and the Ombudsman's, two factors have to be considered: their ties and their responsibilities.

The present bill proposes measures to safeguard the local Commissioner's impartiality: he will be nominated by and answer to the institution's board of directors; the Commissioner's work will be dedicated exclusively to enforcing the rights of health and social services patrons. However, the bill makes less provision for the regional Commissioner's image of impartiality because he will be nominated by the board of directors of the Regional Health and Social Services Board and will answer to its director general who may entrust him with whatever duties the Regional Board's organisation confer. This is the rub with the regional Commissioner: one might question the efficiency or impartiality of a person who is connected with the organisation under fire.

The bill also provides for a 60 day delay in order that the local or regional Commissioner may render a decision after receiving a complaint. According to the Québec Ombudsman, this delay should not be allowed to become a rule. Provisions should also insure that a local or regional Commissioner give a complainant the reasons why his or her complaint has been rejected, or its findings were negative.

Before passing the Bill on the Health and Social Services Ombudsman, the Québec Ombudsman recommends the following amendments:

Section 1 of the bill should give the Health and Social Services Ombudsman the status of a parliamentary Ombudsman through a nomination by the National Assembly to which he or she would report;
If the status of parliamentary Ombudsman is not given to the Health and Social Services Ombudsman, the actual title of Complaints Commissioner for Health and Social Services should be maintained;
The local Commissioner should be heard by the board of directors of the institution once a year as to his or her activity report;
The regional Commissioner should answer to the board of directors of the Health and Social Services Regional Board;
The regional Commissioner should be heard once a year by the board of directors of the Health and Social Services Regional Board as to his or her activity report;
The regional Commissioner should not have other duties other than those concerning enforcement of health and social services rights, improvement of the quality of services, or giving satisfactory service to the public;
The local and regional Commissioners should be able to act on their own initiative when they have reason to believe that a person or a group of persons have or may have suffered prejudice through an act or omission by an institution, an agency, a resource, a company or a person who have provided services;
The aid agencies, the supportive care and attention institutions, and the advocacy groups should have the right to transmit advice to the Health and Social Services Ombudsman and to local and regional Commissioners pertaining to the improvement and the quality of services;
Any person connected with (spouse, parent, friend) or showing interest in (voluntary worker, chaplain, etc.) a patron should be allowed to bring to the attention of the local or regional Commissioners actually vested with the power of initiative, a situation where any patron or group of patrons are liable to suffer prejudice;
The Health and Social Services Ombudsman should insure that complaints remain confidential and that only essential processing information be transmitted;
The local and regional Commissioners should insure to give reasons for their decisions without undue delay not exceeding 60 days.
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