Nursing Home Inspection: “Serious Sanctions” Against 55 Establishments, Announces Minister

The nursing home inspection plan launched after the Orpea scandal in 2022 has identified 55 establishments that have received "serious sanctions," announced Minister Charlotte Parmentier-Lecocq in a program to be broadcast on France 2 on Tuesday evening.

"That is to say, it was decided either to immediately close the establishment or to place it under guardianship due to serious cases of mistreatment, significant malfunctions" or "problems with care provision," the Minister for Autonomy explained during the debate "At the heart of nursing homes, from indifference to action," viewed by AFP.

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In January 2022, the publication of the investigative book "Les Fossoyeurs" by journalist Victor Castanet triggered a major scandal by revealing cases of financial embezzlement and mistreatment of elderly people in certain establishments of the Orpea group (since renamed Emeis).

Faced with the emotion aroused, the government of the time announced that the 7,500 nursing homes in France would be audited within two years and forced to be more transparent about their services and their use of public funds.

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By the end of December 2024, 96% of these establishments had been inspected, reports Charlotte Parmentier-Lecocq on France 2. Responsible for the inspections, the regional health agencies (ARS) "visited a third of the sites", "prioritizing those for which there were elements of doubt or alert".

At the same time, they checked "on paper, based on information that nursing homes must provide in terms of figures, in terms of staff turnover, the presence of employees, sick leave, care issues, serious events, and which sometimes led to an audit," she added.

"We need to restore transparency to the system, we need to restore trust," the minister insisted. "If we don't have this transparency, we won't meet the expectations of families and loved ones. And in the process, all the institutions and professionals who do their jobs well are tarnished, demotivating them, even though these are valuable professions that we need," she added.