Scandal Orpea: the State seizes justice and will claim the restitution of certain public endowments – Le Monde

Logo of the Orpea group at the entrance to the nursing home in Rezé, February 2, 2022. STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS After six weeks of investigation, the general inspection of social affairs (IGAS) and the general inspection of finances (IGF ) issued their conclusions on the group of accommodation for the elderly Orpea. Noting “serious dysfunctions” as well as “failures on the human and organizational level”, the Minister Delegate for Autonomy, Brigitte Bourguignon, announced on Saturday March 26 on France Inter that the State will file a complaint against the group and will claim the reimbursement of public grants presumed to have been diverted from their purposes. .@BrigBourguignon: “In view of serious malfunctions which have been qualified by IGAS and IGF, we are… https://t.co/hzDmDrBwTi— franceinter (@France Inter) “In view of serious malfunctions, we we can tell you that the State is filing a complaint and seizing the public prosecutor, “said the Minister, based on the reports of the administrative inspections. Read also: Article reserved for our Ehpad subscribers: the State makes a damning preliminary report for the Orpea group The investigation report drawn up by the IGF and the IGAS, seized by the government on February 1, reports “significant dysfunctions in the organization of the group, to the detriment of the management charge of residents, “said the ministry in a press release. Highly anticipated for weeks, this report will however not be made public, because it is covered by “business secrecy”, Ms. Bourguignon’s cabinet told AFP. On March 11, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, with nevertheless affirmed that he intended to publish part of this document, more exactly “all of it, with the exception of what is covered by business secrecy”. How the IGF and IGAS investigated Orpea The flash campaign lasted less than six weeks. Mandated by a mission letter dated February 1, initialed by four ministers, the general inspectorates of finance (IGF) and social affairs (IGAS) had until March 14 to shed light on the “serious accusations”, according to the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, contained in Victor Castanet’s book on Orpea, Les Fossoyeurs (Fayard, 400 pages, 22.90 euros). The double expertise was to make it possible to sift through all the facts related in the book. The method used was at three levels. First level: the inspections investigated within the group. At the headquarters of Orpea, in Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine), accounting documents were seized. Ten nursing homes from the group, randomly in six different regions, were the subject of unexpected visits by inspectors. The latter reviewed the stocks of protection against incontinence as well as the menus, dissected the schedules, the employment contracts… To verify the sincerity of the information from Orpea on the use of public money, the inspectors compared the data from facility directors with that from the group’s regional departments. But also documents from headquarters and those sent to regional health agencies (ARS) and departmental councils. Second level: the IGF and the IGAS have moved closer to the ARS. The two inspections examined 41 reports made by the agencies on Ehpad Orpea from 2018 to 2021. The executive asked, at the beginning of February, the ARS to multiply the inspections within the establishments of the group: 150 establishments have been checked since the end of January . The IGF and IGAS have established probes into these ongoing inspections. Last dimension: the inspectors compared Orpea with other private groups or public nursing homes to draw parallels on several indicators: the number of staff per 100 residents, the number of fixed-term contracts… The publication in February of the book-investigation Les Fossoyeurs, in which the journalist Victor Castanet accuses the private group of having set up a “system” to optimize its profits to the detriment of the well-being of residents and employees, had created a real earthquake within the sector. While it estimates that 10% of residential establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) are inspected by regional health agencies (ARS) each year, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday the launch of a campaign which aims to “control the 7,500 nursing homes in France over the next two years”. The staff of the ARS will be reinforced thanks to around a hundred recruitments. Read also Article reserved for our subscribers “We will have to stop whipping ourselves, there! “: how Orpea is preparing the response to the report on the malfunctions in its nursing homes Le Monde with AFP