By Robin Della Corte
www.thesuburban.com
The Centre d’assistance et d’accompagnement aux plaintes (CAAP) offers services where you can obtain assistance and support needed to file complaints regarding the health network in Laval.
The service, which began in 1994, is free and bilingual. It aims to establish a quality program where health users can voice their opinion on the services they receive and, if they’re not satisfied, they can file a complaint to improve the services.
“It’s essential to have an organization like us,” said CAAP director Jean Bélair. “If we weren’t there, I’m pretty sure only ten per cent of all complaints would actually go through, since its not easy to file a complaint.”
Bélair explained that this organization doesn’t aim to get workers fired. Rather, it tries to help improve the system and to aid users to file these complaints and support them.
Every health institution in Laval has a complaint commissioner, who is the one who receives the complaints from CAAP. These commissioners analyze the reports and make recommendations, where they have 45 calendar days to propose and send a recommenda- tion to both the user and the board of directors of the institution.
“We’re just a helping hand,” Bélair said. “Our mission is not to judge, but to listen and help make the process of filing a complaint easier.”
All complaints must be signed by the user and no group complaints are allowed, each person has to have file their own personal complaint. If a health institution calls asking for a user’s name, the CAAP isn’t obliged to give any information if the user doesn’t agree.
“People are afraid of the consequences from filing a complaint,” Bélair said. “They’re always concerned that maybe the health institution won’t service them after the complaint is filed, but this is absolutely incorrect.”
Bélair claims that Laval doesn’t receive many complaints, So far this year, 180 complaints have been filed.
“As far as we’re concerned, we want to help summarize these complaints,” Bélair said. “If a user is taking the time to file a complaint and comes to us, we’re only concerned that someone wasn’t doing their job, since the user is left unsatisfied.”
Bélair states that the law is strict and that the CAAP can’t “run after the user to file the complaint. The user must come to [CAAP].”
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