After the revelations of the Orpéa scandal, groups continue to point out the dysfunctions in the reception of the elderly.
It probably takes more than a book, even a successful one, to burst the abscess on the living conditions of our elders in residential establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) where many of us bury their bad conscience. After the explosion of Victor Castanet’s investigation into “Les Fossoyeurs” by Orpéa, the leading operator in the sector, the promises of development and improvement of the service provided in retirement homes, in any case, are slow to to be smelled. And many families continue to denounce “structural” dysfunctions in certain establishments in Haute-Garonne. Thus the Cofameq31 collective which alerted the Regional Health Agency (ARS) to report an abnormal situation within the residence of the Ecuyer, in the Cépière district, in Toulouse, managed by DomusVi.
“Staff are forced to juggle with residents”
“There is a chronic understaffing with, for example, a single caregiver in the protected sector to take care of a dozen people, explains the collective. The staff is understaffed, poorly trained and subject to high turnover. This leads to borderline situations. Like at the beginning of the year when two residents fell because there was no one to accompany them”. The families also point to the case of a 91-year-old man, undernourished and malnourished. Who lost a dozen pounds. “The staff is forced to juggle with all the residents on whom we impose indecent meal times, 6 p.m. in the evening, for example, and we end up with food supplements, accuses the collective. It is not normal, it is inhuman”. Patrick Collardot, president of the “TouchePasMesVieux” association, visited the residence of the Ecuyer last January. But his mediation did not have much effect, according to the Cofameq 31 collective, which notes that the social life council (CVS), compulsory in nursing homes, is “non-existent”. But the director of the residence of the Esquire, is false against “false allegations” from people who seek “only to raise the sauce”. For her, the DomusVi group “has made a lot of effort” and we are no longer in the same configuration as three years ago, when two nurses were made redundant. “Things have evolved a lot,” she said.
“We just redid the window”…
In fact, the residence has been completely renovated with work that has not been easy to manage. “We just redid the window, annoys the collective, recalling in passing that DomusVie, the third operator “on the market”, has a good financial return “of 8.8% over the year and is doing well”. Enough to invest in staff, according to the collective. “For my father, I pay more than 3,000 euros, protests one of its members and we had an increase of 5.14% this year because it is not framed”. An appeal has also been filed by an association with the Constitutional Council to index this index like that of rents. We can see that the malaise is far from dissipated.