QA few days after the revelations, Orpea acted. “The board of directors of the Orpea group, meeting on January 30, 2022, decided to end the functions of general manager of Mr. Yves Le Masne”, announces the group. Non-executive chairman of the group’s board of directors since March 2017, Philippe Charrier becomes “chairman and chief executive officer of the company with immediate effect”.
His “mission will be to ensure, under the supervision of the Board, that best practices are applied throughout the company and to shed full light on the allegations made, relying in particular on the assessment missions entrusted by the Board of Directors to two independent firms in the process of being appointed”, continues the text.
ARS Île-de-France will lead the investigation
In the investigation book The Gravediggers, published on Wednesday and whose good sheets had been published in The world Monday, the independent journalist Victor Castanet describes a system where the care of hygiene, the medical care, even the meals of the residents are rationed to improve the profitability of Orpea. And this, while stays are charged at full price. Orpea, which claims to be “one of the main global players in comprehensive dependency care, with a network of 1,156 establishments for 116,514 beds”, disputed the accusations, which it described as “misleading, outrageous and prejudicial”.
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The group announced on Wednesday evening that it had commissioned “two leading firms to conduct an independent assessment in order to shed light on all the serious allegations” against it. The publication of the book plunged the title Orpea, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, and aroused many indignant reactions from union and political leaders. The leaders of Orpea are expected Tuesday morning at the Minister Delegate for the Autonomy of the Elderly, Brigitte Bourguignon, following a summons from the latter. The regional health agency of Île-de-France has been instructed by the government to conduct an investigation, and has launched an inspection in the Ehpad of the Orpea group in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine), specifically targeted in the book.