“We discovered it because of the smell”, a nurse confides. In a communication sent to the Ile-de-France Regional Health Authority (ARS) in October, M wrote^Me L., daughter of a resident of Ehpad La Tournelle, an Emera Group facility based in La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) wrote succinctly: “4. October: Left alone, locked in her locked room for twenty-four hours. » His mother, who had Alzheimer’s, was left alone in her locked room by the staff for a day “I thought she was in the hospital”. A “Oblivion” WHO “was not brought to attention” of Emera management. No more than the ten incidents listed in M’s report^Me L. at the ARS: Theft of clothing, dirty room, toilet not used… The group still assures that it will think about it “With the greatest interest in any claims or complaints from families and residents”.

The case is anything but an isolated incident. In August 2022, a resident of an Emera Ile-de-France nursing home suffered a diabetic coma after an error in administering insulin. Recently, on August 26th, a resident of the Sophie nursing home in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) threw herself out of the window. “She was a woman who was at the end of her tether, says a supervisor from the facility. She kept saying she wasn’t feeling well, but nothing was done. » The Grasse public prosecutor’s office contacted concluded that it was a suicide and is preparing to close the investigation. On September 5, a resident of the La Tournelle nursing home died of dehydration. On September 29, an 83-year-old man, a resident of another group care home in Châteauneuf-Grasse, escaped the vigilance of staff and disappeared. His lifeless body was found a few days later.

On October 3, Alice Béranger filed a complaint about the ill-treatment inflicted on her own grandmother, a resident of the Douceur de France nursing home in Gradignan (Gironde), also managed by the Emera group. Out of, “Around ten complaints” followed each other against the group’s branches in France, assures M^e Farge, lawyer for several plaintiff families. The group, in turn, calls forth “Five Complaints” for two years – including two for the Gradignan nursing home, the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office confirms – and ensures hard work “Systematic internal investigations”.

“Dishes filled with water”, “dirty” rooms

Numerous families, but also employees and even company managers, complain about a trend within the Emera Group that results from a race for profits at any price, which is reminiscent of a precedent. “Two years after the Orpea scandal, nothing has changed”is outraged M^e Farge, who is also surprised by the lack of response from both public opinion and elected officials.

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