2024-05-14 01:35:00
Old age is expensive, but it pays off in a big way: in a tireless investigation across Europe, Laurence Delleur and Nathalie Amsellem make way for the management of the elderly and dependent, over the years, to be handed over to the private sector. And how these large groups continue, with public money, to enrich themselves shamefully, sacrificing seniors and staff.
The recent scandals at Orpea (now Emeis) and Korian (now Clariane) showed that certain structures had cut back on residents’ portions of food or daily hygiene products to fill the pockets of their shareholders in France. In Spain, it is even worse, explain the authors.
Age-related dependency is a huge recent phenomenon: fewer people are dying than in the last century. Information sources indicate that one in three Europeans will be over 65 in 2050. And their support could be up to 30% of gross domestic product by 2070, according to experts.
Giving the sector to “old age merchants”
The States did not wait to reach this stage to sell everything that was managed by the community to the private sector. It was of course Margaret Thatcher who launched the idea of easing public spending by handing over the sector to “old age leaders”. The sector was fully deregulated in the United Kingdom from 1988, and from 1997 in France.
Both directors increase the testimonials. Starting with this Spanish woman, who put her mother, who was losing her mind, into a retirement home. He was politely refused access. And when she forced the doors, she discovered that her mother was suffering from an infected sick bed, as big as a fist, was malnourished, and a complete lack of care. She absolutely had to take it by force.
In the UK, facilities can close overnight, leaving residents and their families stranded without a solution. In Germany, domestic care is preferred, but it is provided by Romanian women, who have no necessary qualifications, and have to live 24 hours a day with their employer, in terrible social conditions. In France, we are not much better off, as the recent crises have shown.
Management costs, lack of medical care, budgetary constraints on low-paid and pushed staff, Covid management and the repeated scandals in France have shown the urgency of political decisions. To Laurence Delleur, “The politicians have a big responsibilitybut also on all of us, citizens, because we are looking away from the elderly, because we don’t want to look at our own old age.”
She recalls that “Norway and Scotland have restored some retirement homes: so it’s not impossible to go back. Even if, in France or Spain, it is rather utopian to think that we are going to restore everything. However: Emmanuel Macron promised an age-old law, which clearly did not see the light of day. Because we have to destroy the big players in the sector?
Hold back the old people, Arte, Tuesday 14 May, 8:55 pm
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