A warehouse was transformed into a temporary morgue, with a capacity of 800 to 1,000 coffins.
The Rungis Market has made this building available free of charge, a private operator called OGF manages this temporary morgue and invoices. It was important to clarify this.
It is not acceptable to charge families already very strongly affected by the disappearance of one or more relatives for the cost of preserving the body of a deceased person in a warehouse at Rungis Market transformed into a morgue. faced with this exceptional excess mortality due to the epidemic of coronavirus on our soil. Currently the passage of a coffin to Rungis is invoiced several hundred euros. So that a body is kept an average week in this 4000 m2 building, refrigerated at 5 ° C requisitioned on the “MIN” of Rungis by the Paris Police Prefect due to the overload of the funeral services of Île- de-France, you have to pay a sum of 250 euros, expresses himself on his facebook page Christophe Robert Pasquet.
“I ask all my media friends in large numbers on my page to echo it to stop this scandalous reality.”
But who is the OGF, the operator in question, who indeed planned a “6-day package” and why …
Requisitioned by the prefect at the request of the government to deal with the influx of deceased coronavirus (COVID-19), a refrigerated building of the Market of National Interest (MIN) of Rungis (Val-de-Marne), the ” Paris belly ”, has been welcoming the coffins of the victims of the epidemic since Monday 6 April, thus serving as a morgue.
But the families of the deceased did not expect to have to pay care costs, which did not exist in hospitals. Tariffs denounced this Thursday, April 9 by the Minister of the Interior.
Christophe Castaner has therefore requested that control be exercised over the provisional morgue over his controversial tariffs. “It seems abnormal to me that the constraints related to the situation of confinement and massive mortalities are attributed financially to families,” said Christophe Castaner before the fact-finding mission of the National Assembly on the Covid-19 epidemic. Cropping necessary on the part of the government, while “the Rungis morgue is managed by a private operator,” said the Minister of the Interior.
The warehouse has been requisitioned by the Paris police headquarters since early April from Semmaris, the company managing the Market of national interest (MIN). The police headquarters then requisitioned a funeral operator, the OGF group. “It is he who sets the rates,” said a police source who said that “no money goes to the state or the police,” according to Le Parisien.
This is the cry of the heart of Sandrine Thiefine, president of the Undertaker of France network, this Thursday morning. While the first coffins arrived this weekend in the Rungis building (Val-de-Marne), several undertakers have told their president of their discomfort at the idea of extending a note to families.
You should know that staying in the mortuary of a hospital is free for the first few days (a period which varies according to the establishment). These are sometimes full, due to the very numerous deaths linked to the coronavirus. The bodies of the victims can then be taken to the Rungis morgue, set up by the State to unclog the funeral services.
According to our information, the prices charged by OGF are lower than the average charged in private funeral homes. “The prices are very variable but it takes around 400 to 700 euros for the three-day package,” confirms Sandrine Thiefine.
“The operator in question, OGF, in fact provided for a” 6-day package “at 159 euros for” admission and stay in a sealed and sealed coffin condition “. Each additional day was invoiced at 35 euros, while that a space for meditation could be reserved for families at the rate of 55 euros for “one hour maximum”, explains Sandrine Thiefaine, president of Pompes funèbres de France, competitor of OGF. ”
“The passage of the coffin at Rungis is paying for families. And that is not acceptable. Families cannot be charged a fee for going through a warehouse in Rungis, “she said indignantly, recalling that exemptions had been granted, the legal deadline of six days to bury a deceased being now exceeded. “At Rungis, we charge an additional day 35 euros (beyond 6 days, note),” she denounced.
A situation which Nicolas Dupont-Aignan was also moved in a video on Twitter, in which he called for “sanctions against the monsters who are profiting from the crisis”. The Rungis market, for its part, recalled in a press release that it was not responsible for the tariffs applied, specifying that its “role” stopped at the establishment of a funeral home to which the bereaved families “Access for free”, thus returning responsibility to the private operator OGF.
N. Dupont-Aignan
✔@dupontaignan
Une honte sans nom ! On facture aux familles en deuil 150€ pour que le cercueil soit admis à Rungis, 50€ pour s’y recueillir 1h, et après 1 semaine 35€/jour ! Je demande la gratuité, le remboursement des familles, et des sanctions contre les monstres qui profitent de la crise.
N. Dupont-Aignan
✔@dupontaignan
L’affaire Rungis est inhumaine. Je demande à @EPhilippePM et @CCastaner :
– l’annulation des frais liés à l’admission des défunts à Rungis ;
– le remboursement des familles ;
– la publication du contrat avec le prestataire gérant la morgue : l’Etat savait-il pour la facturation ?
Marché de Rungis
✔@marchederungis
Un bâtiment excentré et isolé du Marché de #Rungis a été réquisitionné gratuitement par @Prefet94 pour mettre en place une maison funéraire. Les familles endeuillées y accèdent gratuitement. Notre rôle s’arrête ici. Nos pensées vont aux familles. @slayani @Bruce_Toussaint
“Given the circumstances – death due to the epidemic, no authorized mortuary, direct brewing, no possibility of seeing the deceased … – and given what the families are going through, I think it would rather be up to the State to cover these costs, ”says the president of the Undertakers of France, Sandrine Thiefaine.
A request heard in the wake of the Minister of the Interior: Christophe Castaner requests control of the temporary morgue at the Rungis market. “It seems abnormal to me that the constraints linked to the situation of confinement and massive mortalities are attributed financially to the families,” he declares.
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