“I, in my life, don’t wait to be controlled to do what I signed up for”, Amélie Verdier recused herself on Wednesday, February 9, before the social affairs committee of the National Assembly. It is out of the question for the new director general of the Ile-de-France regional health agency to hear, without being « shock », “some Orpea executives say that all this is connected with the fact that there are not enough controls”. It is impossible for the former budget director (2017-2021) to let the institution she has been running since August 2021 be pilloried on the grounds that the world’s leading group of private retirement homes practices “a system to reduce costs to the bone”, with “destructive consequences for the care of tens of thousands of elderly people”, according to Victor Castanet, author of the book gravedigger (Fayard, 400 pages, 22.90 euros) on the « system » Orpea.
Interviewed in turn, on Wednesday, before the same commission, Mr. Castanet nevertheless explained why, according to him, “the regional health agencies have failed in their primary mission, namely to ensure the proper use of public money, and, above all, to protect our seniors”.
The same morning, in front of the deputies, MrI Verdier was, in fact, unable to hide the pitfalls of the ARS control mission. M. Castanet’s book revealed in particular the « dysfunction » in the Ehpad Orpea The Banks of the Seine, in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine). Although this establishment was inspected by the ARS in 2018, only 24 Ehpad were checked that year out of the 707 in the region. A paltry number. Between 2018 and 2021, only 90 Ehpads in the region have been visited by inspectors from the ARS. An average of 25 per year, or 3.5% of establishments. A very low score compared to other regions.
Decrease in the number of inspectors since 2014
“10% of nursing homes on average are subject to an inspection-control by the ARS, every year, outside the period of health crisis”, asserts to the World the office of Brigitte Bourguignon. A notoriously insufficient pace, according to the deputy Minister in charge of autonomy, who, the day following the release of Mr. Castanet’s book, asked the ARS to control as a priority the 230 Orpea establishments in France…
The Ile-de-France is not the only one to be below average. The ARS d’occitanie controls only 8% of nursing homes on its territory, or 70 visits per year. “The way in which a regional health agency controls nursing homes is not limited to inspections, insisted MrI Verdier, Wednesday. There are also the on-site inspections at the ARS office, which make it possible to compare different sources and find out whether an unannounced inspection should be triggered or not. » In 2021, 290 complaints from residents and families were sent to the ARS. All these alerts do not report cases of abuse, says MI Verdier, but they are “all educated”.
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