The Orpea group has been in the crosshairs since the publication of the book “Les Fossoyeurs” which depicts a company taking better care of its shareholders than the residents of its nursing homes. Nearly 80 families of victims filed a complaint against the group on Monday for “endangering the lives of others”, “non-assistance to a person in danger”, “manslaughter” or “violence by negligence”.
“I continue to receive reports of abuse every day. The malfunctions persist. Nothing has changed”, denounces the lawyer Sarah Saldmann who centralizes the complaints of the families and prepares another collective action against the Korian group, the other giant of the nursing home sector.
The Orpea group is also singled out in a damning report by the IGF (General Inspectorate of Finance) and the IGAS (General Inspectorate of Social Affairs) made public on Tuesday. At first, the government took refuge behind business secrecy to oppose the publication of this document denouncing serious dysfunctions within the private group. The Ministry of Solidarity and Health has backtracked so as not to be accused of a lack of transparency, after redacting the 500 pages of certain financial amounts.
“Priority to financial performance”
The report denounces within the group a “management of the establishments which gives priority to financial performance, the quality criteria being evaluated separately”.
The IGF and the IGAS also criticize human resources management that goes against good quality of care: “Understaffing, turnover and excessive use of fixed-term contracts, insufficient training in patient care . »
The supervision rates at Orpea are lower than the average for private nursing homes which are themselves below the ratio in the public sector, according to the report. The lack of caregivers results in insufficient care time per patient and per day, between 50 minutes and 1 hour 20 minutes in a sample of five nursing homes in the group. The time available for daily washing varies from 15 to 24 minutes depending on the establishment.
Inadequate food supply
The report also points to an unsuitable food supply, leading to the risk of undernutrition, with quantities “significantly below the reference recommendations for protein foods (up to 42% for meat)”. Residents of certain nursing homes in the group do not benefit from a nighttime snack, which results in a nighttime fast longer than the maximum of 12 hours recommended by the public authorities.
The Orpea group is also accused of misusing public money.
Brigitte Bourguignon, the Minister Delegate for Autonomy, announced that the State was going to file a complaint on the basis of the elements of the report and will demand the reimbursement of public grants which would have been diverted from their purposes.