It’s necessary “a notice [de Bridge] so that immediate means are put in place to preserve at least those who are there”, claims Claudette Brialix, the president of the National Federation of Associations and Friends of the Elderly and their Families (Fnapaef), Friday April 22 on franceinfo. After Orpea, the retirement home manager Bridge is in turn accused of “serious shortcomings” and mistreatment of residents of its Ehpad, according to a survey by the Radio France investigation unit published today.
franceinfo: Are you surprised by the accusations of abuse against Bridge?
Claudette Brialix: Nothing surprises and nothing shocks anymore, insofar as all this exists and was kept under the extinguisher for a long time, until the outbreak of the Orpea scandal. Small groups have the same practices as large groups. It is high time, if there is the political will to do so, that we do a lot of cleaning around the privatization and the commodification of aging which gave birth to this type of establishment. What is dramatic, moreover, is that the public has withdrawn so as not to put money into it, it has offloaded this problem onto the private sector which, for its part, has seen an infinite financial windfall , with a guarantee in the future, to make a lot of money in a very short time. Bridge has made a lot of money in less than five years. It is systemic and it is absolutely urgent to do this major cleaning.
Should the group’s establishments be closed?
We cannot close an establishment overnight for the simple and good reason that the people who are welcomed there should be welcomed elsewhere. However, there must be places available in sufficient numbers and nearby to do so. What must be demanded immediately, however, is a formal notice, perhaps through a shortened legal procedure. A formal notice so that immediate means are put in place to preserve at least those who are there. What we can do, however, is immediately prohibit the entry of new residents into these establishments. In the meantime, with the support that I have just told you about, we must also look for solutions to transfer to other nearby establishments and within a timeframe that can allow the elderly, thus losing their bearings and having been mistreated , not to sink completely and not to let go.
The health authorities had however been warned of the situation in the Ehpad of the Bridge group. Is the state failing?
The state is absent. He doesn’t check enough. There are not enough public servants to do them today and it is perhaps not, contrary to what is claimed, such a high priority. It should be noted that when families make individual complaints, it often does not succeed – moreover, we always encourage families to come together to do so – and we thank very much the investigation units, precisely, who have made it possible to relay these problems without which despair sets in. Above all, don’t give up. You can’t treat old age that way. The more of us the better because when you make an individual complaint, you are also the complainer in the first instance. We treat everything like a consumer, humanity is completely absent from all this, while we always say that the elderly person is at the heart of the system. The declaration of the president of Bridge this morning, it is shameful compared to what is happening. They are young dynamic executives, handsome kids and all, who have no morals and who have only one desire: to make money as quickly as possible, whatever the reason and the object which will allow them to make that money.