Maltractance in the Ehpad of Orpea: "There was a feeling of impunity", accuses the author of the investigation
The Orpéa group has implemented "an optimization and cost reduction system, in which profitability is the only criterion", denounced on Franceinfo Tuesday, January 25 Victor Castanet, author of the Les Fossoyeurs Book.In this work, which is to appear on Wednesday at Fayard, the journalist calls into question the world leader in nursing homes and private clinics, describing a system where hygiene care, medical care, even meals of residents are "rationed"To improve the profitability of the company, while stays are billed at a high price."The group knew how to take correction measures before checks," said Victor Castanet on Franceinfo.
Tuesday, on Franceinfo, Laurent Garcia, a nursing executive who worked eight months in a group's retirement home in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine), denounced an "untenable" system, in which "hardly occupies "residents."We are shocked," reacted the director general of the Ehpad Orpéa, Jean-Christophe Romersi."What is demonstrated by the company as a system is absolutely false.Of course, we are not infallible.There may be dysfunctions ", but" we are open to dicussion, "he said.
Franceinfo: What is behind your survey?
Victor Castanet: this survey, which lasted three years, takes its starting point after alerts of caregivers, who told me dysfunctions in one of the establishments of the Orpéa group.It is one of the most luxurious and most expensive in France.It is located in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) and costs between 7,000 and 12,000 euros per month.Following these alerts, I went to see throughout France other establishments, other directors, who told me about the same dysfunctions in staff and rations on health products.
What products are affected by these rations?
These are rations on the layers that residents must carry.There were clear instructions from the general management, not to spend more than three changes per day.Nursing staff and residence directors have no room for maneuver.They must follow instructions enacted by the headquarters and the general management.
Orpéa has 220 nursing homes in France, more than 1,000 worldwide.Has this success made at the expense of residents?
This is what the 250 people I interviewed bring me for the writing of this book, some of which on their behalf.They tell me an optimization and cost reduction system, in which profitability is the only criterion.A private group must be able to generate money, this is normal.But when it is the only criterion and the quality criteria are almost absent from the discussions, you have drifts.
What do families say?
They tell me situations of mistreatment.Many have alerted regional health agencies, departmental councils and, unfortunately, have not been heard much.I have testimonies of high -placed members of the group who tell me the superiority of the private public, the feeling of impunity and the fact that it was easy to pass the controls carried out by the ARS or the departmental councils.The group was warned upstream, sometimes three weeks to a month before, and he knew how to take correction measures before checks.
Is France mistreatment with the elderly?
I did not investigate everywhere, in all groups.I know that there are private groups that work well and public groups that work well.I don't want to throw the stigma on a whole sector.Let us be in private groups in search of profitability is normal, but there are limits not to be exceeded, in particular vis-à-vis the regulations and the legal framework.There are private groups that work excessively well and have values.There are others in which this is not the case.
Orpea rejects these accusations and observations.Have you had contacts with them?
I contacted Orpéa several times.Obviously, they were kept informed of my investigation and I offered them a meeting.I sent them a series of 60 specific questions on all aspects of my book but the group refused to answer me.
Do you hope that this subject is essential, especially during the campaign for the presidential election?
This is the whole objective of this book and the testimonies that I obtained.It has been years, even decades, that families expect there to be a change in this sector, a great age law that we have talked about a lot, that the control and financing system is changed.The goal is that it creates an electric shock in public opinion, that the public authorities and politicians seize it because I think it is a transpartisan subject, which concerns us all.
