By Mimosa Spencer
PARIS -The French government plans to file a criminal complaint against home care group Orpea over allegations of mistreatment of elderly patients, government minister Brigitte Bourguignon said in a statement Saturday.
Following a month and a half investigation into the group's management and financial practices, the government found "significant dysfunctioning in the group's management, to the detriment of the care of its residents," according to the health ministry.
It will also seek to recover public funds provided to the company after uncovering possible irregularities in how they were used.
Contacted on Saturday, Orpea said it will issue a statement soon in response to the government's plan to launch legal proceedings against it.
A book by independent journalist Victor Castanet in January made public claims of severe failings in hygiene care in an Orpea home for elderly people in a wealthy Paris suburb. The French group has repeatedly denied systemic shortcomings.
The government is inspecting the country's 7,500 elderly care homes over the next two years and plans to reinforce legal and accounting rules to better regulate groups managing elderly care, with a view to better transparency over the use of public funds, it said.