“The days of old age business are over” : Brigitte Bourguignon, minister delegate in charge of autonomy, intends to turn the page as soon as possible “Orpea scandal” triggered by Victor Castanet’s book, The Gravediggers (Fayard, 400 pages, 22.90 euros). The display of the mercantile excesses of the international giant of private nursing homes “shall not bring reproach” on the “advanced” carried out for five years in favor of the elderly, she affirmed, Tuesday, March 8, before the commission of social affairs of the National Assembly.
Mme Bourguignon, who came to highlight her record before the deputies, received a welcome all the more favorable as most of the measures she had announced the same morning to stem the excesses of Orpea – strengthening controls, transparency and evaluation of nursing homes – coincide with the proposals recommended by the reports that the committee examined on 2 and 8 March, the fruit of four flash missions intended to respond to the« where to shock » from M. Castanet’s book.
Each report was drafted by three deputies, belonging to the majority and to the opposition. Wanted by the president (LRM) of the commission Fadila Khattabi (Côte-d’or), this work tends to show that a consensus exists on the urgency of certain measures. The four reports are thus unanimous on the need to increase the frequency of inspections of nursing homes by the regional health agencies (ARS), better information delivered to families and residents, an independent external assessment of the quality of the supported.
Encourage vocations
The twelve authors of the reports also propose structural reforms, some more radical than the provisions announced Tuesday by the government. Thus, to fight against abuse, “the priority of priorities” must be, according to the four flash missions, the increase in the number of caregivers in nursing homes. It is urgent to fix “a ratio of caregivers per resident” to double their number at the bedside of residents, insists Caroline Fiat, deputy (La France insoumise) for Meurthe-et-Moselle, co-rapporteur of the flash mission devoted to “new models” of nursing homes, conducted with the macronist deputy Véronique Hammerer (Gironde) and MP (Les Républicains) Isabelle Valentin (Haute-Loire). Fixing a “staff ratio” is also defended by the rapporteurs of the flash mission on the management of human resources in Ehpad: Didier Martin, deputy (LRM, Côte-d’Or), Cyrille Isaac-Sibille (MoDem, Rhône) and Marine Brenier (LR, Alpes- Maritimes).
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