In Saint-Chély: “If this continues, we’ll close our doors in three years!”

In the memory of old people, the mobilization that took place yesterday in the heart of the village of Saint-Chély-d’Aubrac was a first. A first at the call of the national mobilization for the oldest retirement home in the department as evidenced by the banner hanging on one of the facades, recalling the foundation of the hospice in 1873. But the future is dotted: “Our operating expenses have exploded, creating a record deficit last year of more than €317,000! We need to review the financing method; if this continues, we’ll be out of business in three years.”says David Morin, director of the nursing home which accommodates 65 residents.

Faced with this context, which has become a sword of Damocles, staff members, elderly people and residents responded to the mobilization, holding placards with the slogan “the elderly deserve better”. “The nursing home benefits from excellent management but like everywhere, the deficit is growing. We lack funding to hire. Knowing that the population is ageing in France with 49% more French people aged 75 to 84 by 2030, we need a national policy. We want to support people with dignity and correctly”says Patrick Gomez, president of the foundation. Especially since in rural areas, on the Aubrac, there is the added problem of employment.

“There was the Covid crisis, inflation, we made the staff sick”continues David Morin, who paid €517,000 last year to use temporary staff.We are underpaid, under pressure, we keep promising things that never happen,” confides one of the 40 or so employees, including ten foreigners, of the retirement home.

So, symbolically yesterday, the director of the retirement home, David Morin, handed over the keys to the establishment to the head of the town hall (in the absence of Christiane Marfin, mayor, who is being held in a community council in Brommat, Editor’s note) so that she could “send to the prefect with a letter to alert on the situation”Also a member of the collective of professionals serving the elderly in Aveyron, the retirement home of Saint-Chély-d’Aubrac had already taken part in the white paper submitted to the Department last December. “Increasing the price is not the solution since the cost of a resident is €2,100 per month while the cost of retirement is €1,200 on average, and we are not in the private sector to reduce the number of biscuits”concludes David Morin, worried like the villagers present yesterday, pointing the finger “the disconnection of the rulers…”