According to information from Le Parisien, lawyer Sarah Saldmann is preparing to launch a class action against Korian, manager of private retirement homes. It is already at the origin of a similar procedure against Orpea.
Revelations of abuse in Ehpad do not exclusively splash Orpea, one of the world leaders in the sector. Korian, another giant in the private retirement home sector, is in turn in the sights. According to information from Parisian, Sarah Saldmann is preparing to launch a collective action against Korian, after a first targeting Orpea. So far, the lawyer has received “tens” of testimonials. All complaints will be filed with the prosecution in April.
This is not a first for the Korian group. Four families filed a complaint for “manslaughter”, “endangering the lives of others” and “no assistance to the person in danger” in the midst of the Covid epidemic after the death of 36 people – a third of the residents – in an Ehpad of the group, in Mougins. Other complaints have reportedly been filed. To date, the lawyer representing the families, Fabien Arakelian, has identified around fifteen cases concerning Korian among the forty handled by his firm.
150 reports in one week
Sarah Saldmann is already at the origin of a collective action against Orpea, in the wake of the scandal caused by the publication of the book The Gravediggers by Victor Castanet. In this survey published on January 26, the author reveals the excesses of the company and their disastrous consequences, both for the residents of these establishments and for the caregivers. A policy of cost reduction, which the management denies in each of its public interventions, which involves reducing the number of caregivers and rationing hygiene and health products.
In just over a week, the lawyer claims to have received “nearly 150 reports” relating to facts that may constitute mistreatment. Like what is told in Victor Castanet’s book-investigation: rationing of hygiene products, “weightloss” but also “lack of communication when there are broken bones or other health issues”explains in particular Sarah Saldmann in The Parisian.
In the same dynamic, Korian and Orpea shares tumbled on Friday on the Paris Stock Exchange, after the announcement of an ongoing investigation by the magazine Cash Investigation on private nursing homes. In a tweet, the presenter of the show broadcast on France 2Elise Lucet, promised “new revelations” following an investigation by his team “for more than a year on private nursing homes”. It should be released in the coming weeks.
No excuses from Korian
For her part, the boss of Korian defends private nursing homes without batting an eyelid. “Our system cannot do without”she says. “It would be calamitous if, following the publication of Victor Castanet’s book, we threw the baby out with the bathwater”insists Sophie Boissard, for whom the work “targets the system of a particular company” and not the entire industry. For her, the sector suffers from a lack of public financing and is penalized by the absence “a system of enforceable and controlled quality standards”. But, in the same vein as the CEO of Orpea, she does not outline any questioning or apologies despite the complaints against Korian.
The CEO also asked “solemnly” to Élise Lucet communication “in the interests of families and residents” revelations promised as part of the ongoing investigation by Cash Investigation into private nursing homes. The magazine’s editor-in-chief offered an interview to Korian’s management to discuss these issues, but refused the group’s request that it be held “live and on set”.
Update at 10:12 a.m. with the reaction of Sophie Boissard, boss of Korian.