Gard. Quissac and Bouillargues clinics: strike, new controls, complaints and investigations

The establishments specializing in psychiatry of the VP Santé Group Quissac, in the Gard, including the La Camargue clinic (located in Bouillargues)come back to the forefront of the news: over the last two weeks, CPAM inspectors (Primary Health Insurance Fund) carried out major checks, following reports of recurring malfunctions. In recent years, the Quissac clinic has been the scene of investigations after patient deaths and poisoning by illicit products.

The news is also the strike movement on Tuesday June 18, 2024 which is very popular. In fact, all the staff at the Quissac clinic have stopped working… They are responding to the national call from the CFDT and UNSA unions to demand the application of Amendment 33, an agreement signed in September 2023 and not applied nowadays.

“The financing money has disappeared”

“This Amendment 33 is a new classification of salaries for private health employees: clinics, nursing homes, hydrotherapy. The money planned to finance this agreement has disappeared, and the employees feel left behind again. Today they are asking their employers and the government to respect their commitments. This agreement is the security of the premiums of the Health segment, bonuses granted since the Covid epidemic, but which are not included in salaries, the systemic valuation of seniority in the company and in the activity, and the disappearance of intra-Smic scales which allow many caregivers today do not even receive the hourly minimum wage in their basic salaries”, underline Manuelle Bos, secretary of the CSE and Audrey Pryen, CFDT union representative from the Quissac establishment.

“If members of management and executives were heard, it was the same for employees, which is not common,” assures a union representative, this Tuesday, June 18, 2024. According to him, “it seems that several problems were noted regarding invoicing.” Also, the social and economic committee -CSE- is now requesting the complete verification of the accounts of the Quissac establishments, on the Cros site, because as for their colleagues in the Camargue, the participation bonus will not be paid this year “.

Gendarmerie and prosecutor seized

The CSE denounces that “the general management of the VP Santé Group turns a deaf ear to the demands of employees”. Furthermore, according to our information, criminal complaints have been filed, notably with the police brigade. gendarmerie de Quissac, dependent on the Vigan company and under the direction of the public prosecutor of Alès targeting an alleged use of a doctor’s signature to allow admissions more quickly, while a preliminary investigation is underway for an alleged fictitious job, and inequalities in nurses’ salaries, following a report from the Inspectorate of Gard’s work.

Igas, ARS and Urssaf

The saga therefore continues within the VP Santé group: after four changes of management at the head of the Quissac establishments in two years, and successive inspections by Igas, the labor inspectorate, Urssaf and the ARS (Occitanie Regional Health Agency), a new check by social security of independent doctors has just been completed. What are state agencies looking for? “It seems that doctors are billing patients for visits when they are not on site or when they are on leave,” reveals a unionist to Metropolitan.

Each inspection led to fines or lengthy recommendations in return via letters addressed to the management of the VP Santé Group. Furthermore, “the organization of the Quissac establishment also seems compromised, particularly with regard to the presence of a general practitioner 24 hours a day. Two independent general practitioners are on call, one of whom is over 86 years old, in fragile health and having recently fallen, but having no choice, because he is accommodated free of charge by the establishment. These two doctors cannot provide psychiatric admissions, nor the obligatory on-call treatment at night, raising the question of patient safety in these isolated establishments.”

As for the La Camargue clinic in Bouillargues, also managed by the VP Santé Group, there has been no pharmacist for a month. A recent inspection reveals some curiosities which will be the subject of a report: specialist doctors provide consultations almost 365 days a year and 7 days a week, some seeing more than 30 patients per day in the establishment, excluding outpatient consultations. … which makes, over a ten-hour day without a break, 20 minutes per patient maximum, to which are added external consultations, meetings and their private consultations. Social Security investigators should arrive at this establishment.

It also seems that a certain disorder reigns within the walls of La Camargue: in fact, the Order of Physicians was contacted by specialists from the clinic to complain about theft… of patients! Derived from the word “patient”, this term refers to clients of the medical professions.

Certification?

Other reports have been sent to ARS Occitanie since the start of the year for various problems, such as the breakdown of a freezer with the loss of goods, on the abnormally very high rate of 50% of staff in sick leave, discordant bonuses between employees and non-payment of the participation bonus. “The room rate in the VP Santé Group is also controversial: a fee of 10 euros per day is required for CMU patients, while those with good mutual insurance are given priority and billed at the maximum of their coverage,” notes the CSE.

Finally, the La Camargue clinic has six months to respond to the certification report, barely reaching 80% compliance with numerous deviations on mandatory points, explains the CSE. Regularly requested in recent months by Metropolitanthe management of VP Santé never follows up.

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