Québec City, December 1, 2022 — Today, Protecteur du citoyen Marc-André Dowd tabled his 2021-2022 Annual Report at the National Assembly.
Year after year, the Protecteur du citoyen’s Annual Report examines serious shortcomings in health services and social services, such as understaffing, red tape and service cuts. Since the appearance of COVID-19, public services have been able to innovate and adopt new practices to cope with the pandemic. The Protecteur du citoyen feels that the authorities must continue on that course with a view to responding to disquieting problems in health services and social services.
"The system can turn around quickly in times of crisis, so why is there such resistance to change when it comes to resolving problems of access to residential resources, mental health professionals or support services for troubled youth?" the Protecteur du citoyen wonders.
Pressing needs and disturbing deficiencies
- Respite places in public network resources for the informal caregivers of people with disabilities are increasingly rare because these places are often changed into regular residential places. Respite as an option plays a crucial role in enabling people to continue living at home and in preventing burnout for the people who take care of them.
- In November 2021, the Protecteur du citoyen released a special report on how residential and long-term care centres (CHSLDs) managed the COVID-19 crisis during the first wave of the pandemic. The report homes in on major flaws which the care environments and the authorities often had long known about.
- In Québec, CISSS and CIUSSS mechanisms for access to public residential resources get 21,000 applications each year. After investigating, the Protecteur du citoyen published a special report describing the dysfunction within these mechanisms that cause lengthy wait times, for example.
- During a family intervention, Direction de la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ) staff removed a newborn and took the baby to the hospital without the mother understanding why. In shock, she was told after the fact that the complaint to the DPJ was unfounded. The Protecteur du citoyen insisted to the DPJ sections concerned that families must always be treated respectfully.
A few figures
Among the main grounds for complaint, four causes for dissatisfaction with the health and social services network are cited most often:
- Poor service quality (23.6%)
- Failure to respect citizens’ rights (18.2%)
- Failings in staff competence or behaviour (12.8%)
- Lengthy wait times (11.5%)
In 2021-2022, the Protecteur du citoyen intervened regarding:
- 39 of the 52 health and social services institutions
- 11 of the 88 other institutions associated with the health and social services network
- 59 private seniors’ residences
- 15 community organizations
- 6 prehospital emergency services
- 2 private residential resources for vulnerable client populations
Follow up on the report about the COVID-19 crisis in CHSLDs
In its final report on the first wave of COVID-19 in CHSLDs, the Protecteur du citoyen asked the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) to send it an action plan no later than January 2022 in response to its recommendations. MSSS produced such an action plan indicating that several courses of action are underway. Exchanges between MSSS and the Protecteur du citoyen are ongoing. The Protecteur du citoyen has committed to tracking follow-up every year in its Annual Report. This year, it chose to publish an update in the form of a table on its website (in French only).
The Protecteur du citoyen acts impartially and independently in ensuring that the rights of people are upheld in their dealings with public services. Its services are free and user-friendly.
See the Highlights of the Protecteur du citoyen’s 2021-2022 Annual Report in the Annual Reports section of our website.
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Carole-Anne Huot
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Email: medias@protecteurducitoyen.qc.ca
