Learn more about your health and social services rights

The right to emergency care

Published November 7, 2024 by Azalée Larouche. Journal Le Canada Français, page A-23.

Everyone who receives services or care from the health and social services network benefits from rights enshrined in the Act respecting health and social services (LSSS). To ensure your rights are respected, it’s important to know what they are. Today, we’re presenting the right to emergency care. To illustrate this, here’s a (fictional) case scenario featuring Romeo, a 19-year-old young adult who loves to play soccer.

During his last game, he was hit hard on the head and was unconscious for a few minutes. The trainer immediately called the emergency services to have Romeo transferred to the nearest hospital emergency room.

When he arrived at the emergency room in the afternoon, he was seen by the triage nurse. The nurse mentions that his case is a priority, given his condition, and that a doctor should be coming to see him very soon.

At around 1:30 p.m., Romeo met with an emergency physician, who explained that she would be ordering a brain scan immediately to check for hemorrhage. The doctor explains that the results come quickly, with a wait of about two hours. Romeo’s parents let him rest and leave the emergency room.

WAIT

The next morning, Romeo’s parents arrived at the emergency room, and still had no news of the imaging results. Around 1 p.m., Romeo’s mother tells the nurse that her son’s condition is deteriorating. He was less and less alert, had difficulty staying awake, had lost muscle tone and was barely interacting. Around 5 p.m., they learn that the emergency physician on duty has left the hospital before assessing Romeo.

Another emergency physician comes to see Romeo to tell him that he will be transferred to another, more specialized hospital, as he had a major cerebral hemorrhage. His mother asks why they didn’t receive the results earlier, and the ER doctor replies that the technician didn’t archive the images properly.

In the early evening, he was transferred to the other hospital. His condition was assessed and the neurosurgery team was called in for immediate intervention. Romeo’s parents asked the doctor if waiting 24 hours before transferring him could have caused permanent damage to Romeo’s brain. She replied that there was a risk, since Romeo’s brain was heavily compressed by blood.

COMPLAINT

A counsellor from the Centre d’assistance et d’accompagnement aux plaintes (CAAP) helped the family draft a letter of complaint so that everyone could get answers to their questions. The complaint will be used to set up a signature register to ensure that the images are always properly archived.

CAAP Montérégie is the community organization mandated by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux to help users file complaints in the public services sector.

We inform and guide users through the complaint process, assist them in writing and formatting their letter of complaint and, if necessary, refer users to the appropriate body.

All our services are non-judgmental and confidential, and we respect the user’s decision to pursue or not pursue the process. This means that the user can terminate the process at any time, without having to justify his or her decision. If you think you need our services, don’t hesitate to contact us at 450 347-0670.