Orpea accused of ill-treatment in Austria

A sign of its seriousness, the report was adopted by the collegiate formation of the Austrian Defender of Rights, which only happens in rare cases. Thursday, September 8, the Vienna-based institution made public alarming accusations about a retirement home in Salzburg managed by the private Austrian group of nursing homes SeneCura, bought in 2015 by the French Orpea, itself faced with similar accusations in France since the publication of the book The Gravediggers by journalist Victor Castanet (Fayard), early 2022.

During a surprise inspection in this establishment of 90 places, on April 21, the rapporteurs of the Defender of Rights claim to have discovered “serious shortcomings in care that represent a threat to the mental and physical integrity of residents”. Their findings were so alarming that the health authorities of the Land of Salzburg decided in the process to seize the prosecution. He entrusted the police with a preliminary investigation against X, the first results of which should be known in November. Several executives and employees of SeneCura have already been interviewed by the police.

” Lack of staff “

The details of the report are particularly sordid. The committee was particularly shocked by the case of a woman with “massive bedsores” which were not subject “no professional cleaning and no daily description of their evolution”. The rapporteurs, who witnessed the dressing change, even declare that they noticed “smells of putrefaction”. They recommended a “immediate transfer to hospital” of the boarder, who is finally “died shortly after the visit”. ” I’ve never seen that “ensures the World Karin Gutiérrez-Lobos, professor of psychiatry at the University of Vienna, who conducted this inspection.

This dramatic case would be the symptom “lack of staff”denounce the rapporteurs, who declare that they have also noted that “drugs that were due at 7:30 a.m. still hadn’t been by 11 a.m.,” and “some residents had not even received breakfast at that time”. They also denounce the lack of reaction from the health authorities of the Land of Salzburg, who waited until the beginning of July to react after multiple alerts from the staff. “We published this report because the reaction of the authorities was unsatisfactory despite numerous on-site inspections”thus criticizes Bernhard Achitz, the Defender of Rights who supervised this file.

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