The independent journalist Victor Castanet investigated for three years the group of retirement homes and private clinics ORPEA in a book published Wednesday by Fayard editions,
"Les Fossoyeurs
".
Orpea, which manages 1,100 establishments around the world including 220 Ehpad in France, is accused of setting up “
institutional abuse
” towards its residents.
Read alsoEhpad: the voice of the "
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" invites itself into the countryside
Rations and deprivation
The journalist was alerted by several caregivers who testify to a practice of rationing within nursing homes, for health products, but also for food. Some caregivers say that the rusks, the biscuits were counted, and that it was forbidden to refill. Regarding the protections given to the resident, it was a maximum of three per day.
“It was a fixed rule. When some patients asked for more, because they were sick or incontinent, they could not have new protections
, ”explains Victor Castanet on BFM TV.
"It was a systemic problem
." A carer, whose testimony the author has collected, evokes "
a smell of piss"
, because
“Patients weren't changed often enough.
It does not matter that the resident is sick, that he has gastro, that there is an epidemic.
Nobody wanted to know anything”.
A lack of staff
Victor Castanet evokes in these establishments a lack of carers and a very worrying turnover, which leads to a lack of time for washing and care.
In Neuilly, at the Bords de Seine establishment where the journalist carried out his investigation, there are only one or two carers for 14 residents, and three for 125 beds at night, reveals the author on France Inter.
Human resources also resort to questionable practices, by establishing replacement CSSs for fictitious employees, or by calling on temporary workers for positions that are supposed to be permanent.
Millions of euros in public grants
The Ehpad ORPEA would receive, according to Victor Castanet, between one and two million euros in public grants for each of its establishments, even though the group generates billions of euros in profit per year.
A “
questionable management of public money
”, which was to be allocated for the benefit of the elderly, which is ultimately “
not used for their benefit
”, explains Victor Castanet on France Inter.
The book also reveals links between Orpea and Xavier Bertrand, Minister of Health from 2005 to 2007 and from 2010 to 2012. A former medical director of the group thus evokes a feeling
of “all power
”:
“We had the Minister of Health in our pocket,”
he adds.
stock market crash
During his investigation, Victor Castanet was offered the sum of 15 million euros to stop his research, he revealed on BFM TV. During his investigations, the author was often in contact with Orpea, which refused to answer the list of 56 questions submitted at the end of the investigation. In a statement, the group disputed
"false, outrageous and prejudicial
" accusations. Orpea claimed to have seized its lawyers to give
“all the follow-ups, including on the legal level”
, to the book. In two days, the action of the Orpea title on the Paris Stock Exchange plummeted by around 30%.
The government announced that it had summoned the director general of Orpea
“as soon as possible”
, while the socialist deputies called for parliamentarians to be able to have impromptu visiting rights in nursing homes, like what exists for places of deprivation of liberty.
