Two years after the Orpea nursing home scandal, it is the turn of the private group Emera to be accused of failure by families and of “mistreatment” by the CGT (AFP / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
Two years after the Orpea scandal, which cast a harsh light on senior residences, it is the turn of the private group Emera to be accused of failure by families and of “mistreatment” by the CGT which is calling for a referral to the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas).
“It appears that the Emera group maintains a system of widespread mistreatment which occurs every day among their (…) residents and (…) employees,” says the number one of the union center, Sophie Binet, in a letter to the government consulted by AFP on Saturday.
“The first union organization within the group”, the CGT was “alerted by numerous employees and families of residents of the group of situations of physical and verbal violence, breaches of care and hygiene”, she wrote to the Minister of Solidarity Aurore Bergé, to the Defender of Rights Claire Hédon and to the founder of the group of nursing homes Claude Cheton.
Founded in 1987, the group, which has 7,000 employees and more than 100 establishments in France and Europe, has been in the spotlight since the filing of complaints and testimonies targeting its nursing homes.
In Gironde, an investigation was opened for “habitual violence against vulnerable people”, according to the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office, after a complaint targeting the “Douceur de France” establishment, in Gradignan.
– “Transparency policy” –
At the origin of this complaint, Alice Legendre told AFP that she found “her grandmother in the refectory, without dentures, so that meant that she had not been able to eat, and after discovering her soaked mattress urine”.
“My grandmother is sometimes forced to wash herself even though she is 96 years old and in a wheelchair,” she says, confiding her “emotion” at finding her “dirty and not smelling. not good”.
Contacted by AFP, the Emera group provided “a formal denial of the accusations made against (its) staff”, saying it was “particularly moved by this disinformation campaign which hits (its) employees hard”.
In total, Alice Legendre’s lawyer, Pierre Farge, assures that around ten complaints against Emera have been filed and are being monitored by his office.
The group claims, for its part, to have identified, in October, five complaints in the space of two years, specifying that “none of these complaints has given rise at this stage to a conviction or indictment” of his responsibility.
“We have a policy of transparency with regard to guardianships and discussion with families as soon as an event occurs,” adds Emera, ensuring that we systematically open “internal investigations” and implement “corrective actions.”
In the Paris region, the Tournelle nursing home, in La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), has been the subject of several reports, in particular to the Regional Health Agency (ARS).
The latter confirmed to AFP that she had carried out a visit to the establishment on November 14 which showed “failures in care, which require the establishment of closer support”.
– “Orpea bis”? –
A former manager of the Center North region of the Emera group, who requested anonymity, described, to AFP, a “staggering” situation in this same establishment in Ile-de-France with thefts, “forgotten residents”, “medications given to the wrong patients” or “morphine which is not given in the evening due to lack of a nurse present”.
These latest developments come almost two years after the Orpea scandal which broke out in January 2022 in the wake of the publication of the investigative book “Les Fossoyeurs”, by journalist Victor Castanet, on cases of mistreatment of residents of the private group of homes of retirement.
Following this scandal, the executive announced a strengthening of controls of nursing homes by the ARS and departmental councils.
He also announced a strategy to combat the mistreatment of vulnerable people and a text on “Aging well”, with a focus devoted to this issue.
“Insufficient” measures and “absolutely not up to the challenge”, for Claudette Brialix, president of the National Federation of Associations of Elderly People in Institutions and their Families.
“We are in an Orpea bis,” she judges. “We must put an end to these practices. When ministers talk about controls, we need means for controls, this is not the case.”