PARIS – The board of French elderly care home group Orpea has dismissed the company’s director general Yves Le Masne, the company said on Sunday amid claims of resident mistreatment made in a book.
The company appointed the current non-executive chairman, Philippe Charrier, as new chief executive officer, it said in a statement.
Orpea’s shares lost about half of their value last week after the publication of extracts of a book accusing the company of mistreatment on the elderly were published in a newspaper. The company has denied the accusations.
“Mr. Charrier’s mission will be to ensure, under the Board’s control, that the best practices are applied throughout the company and to shed full light on the allegations made,” the company said in a statement.
The book “Les Fossoyeurs” (The Gravediggers) by journalist Victor Castenet, which went on sale on Wednesday, said food and care products in an Orpea home in a wealthy neighbourhood close to Paris were being rationed although the residents paid monthly fees of several thousand euros.
The company, under massive pressure from both the French government and shareholders, said last week it would hire two firms to look into mistreatment claims. These were still in the process of being designated, it said.
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft)