Due to the coronavirus crisis, many nursing homes are experiencing a record vacancy rate.
Faced with this financially penalizing situation, some establishments do not hesitate to lower their prices.
And professionals are calling for an end to restrictions, which could hamper the will of families.
There have never been so few people in nursing homes.
Before the Covid crisis, we had to go through waiting lists, while today the vacancy rate is simply record.
One in 10 places is not occupied, according to the estimate of Synerpa (the national union of retirement homes).
The reason is simple: the mortality in nursing homes linked to Covid led to many departures, and they were not offset by arrivals.
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"We went from 3,000 euros to 2,500 euros per month"
Faced with this situation, some establishments do not hesitate to lower their prices. A director of nursing home confides it: at the moment, do not hesitate to negotiate! And sometimes it's not even necessary. "I called to take information, and after 10 seconds, I was told that the room, which was 100 euros at the base, we could do there at 80 euros. We went from 3,000 euros to 2,500 euros the month, "says Sylvain, who was looking for an establishment in the Paris region for his mother. "I was surprised, because I thought that the price of the rooms was fixed, that we could not compromise. And in fact, without even negotiating, it is they who propose it."
This is because if you have less than 95% occupancy rate, health insurance lowers its allocations.
On the side of private establishments, it is therefore essential to complete.
And it is really in the last places that they become profitable, a bit like in airplanes.
There is therefore now an urgent need to restore the confidence of the French, because if for the moment the government compensates for the shortfall, it cannot last forever.
"We ask the state to simply suppress any protocol restricting freedoms"
The good news for nursing homes is that as of Wednesday, the visiting protocol will be lightened.
And this is able to convince new residents, because what families fear most is placing their loved ones and not being able to visit them afterwards.
To overcome this reluctance, the new protocol is very clear: nursing home residents have the right to come and go like all citizens, they have the right to room visits and family outings.
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Visits, however, may be prohibited if there are three cases of Covid in the facility. But even this last measure is contested. "Today, we have the full capacity to take care of several Covid residents in their rooms and to let all the residents live their lives and of course also to allow family visits", assures Florence Arnaiz- Maumé, general delegate of the synerpa.
"We can see today that families are preventing themselves from placing their parents in nursing homes for fear that new restrictions will be imposed on them," she continues. We are asking the State for the outright abolition of any protocol restricting freedoms. ”And one of the arguments of professionals for lifting any restriction is that today, 90% of residents of nursing homes are vaccinated.