Bring better elderly care services to more people: NPC deputy

Care of the elderly should be targeted by categories, and also make use of latest technologies to develop quality and affordable products.

The suggestions were made by Liu Yan, vice president of Shanghai No. 9 People’s Hospital and a deputy of the National People’s Congress, at the congress’ annual session.

“The elderly population has benefited from more community services, but we should diversify the services to meet different needs, and drive down the cost of elderly care,” she said.

Efforts should be focused on elderly people with dementia or physical disabilities, and those who live alone. 

Service providers and their staff should be trained according to specific needs.

At present, providers supply basic nursing services and are unable to fulfil more advanced needs such as help with nasal feeding tubes, urinary catheters and tracheal tubes.

“Some elderly people also avoid those service items because they are more expensive,” she said.

To make long-term care insurance sustainable, Liu suggested that the source of funding should include the social insurance system.

Also the role of community health service centers in providing the services should be strengthened.

In terms of residential elderly care facilities, even though the largest category of elderly people are from working families with middle incomes, most of the current facilities are unaffordable, Liu said.

Among all residential elderly care projects in Shanghai, including apartments, nursing homes and community facilities, 84 percent target people with high incomes with 12 percent exclusively serving those with middle incomes, and only 2 percent are in the lower range, according to Liu.

Meanwhile, elderly care facilities in urban areas and those run by the public institutions can hardly meet the increasing needs, while those in suburban areas have many empty beds.

To address the shortage and unbalanced distribution of elderly care facilities, Liu suggested that private businesses should be given equal access to financing and land use.

Liu said the government should encourage businesses to offer affordable choices.

The integration of the Yangtze River Delta region is a great opportunity to develop the elderly care industry in this region in which half of the elderly care facilities are run by private businesses, representing an increasing interest of private capital in the business.

“Making use of the latest mobile and smart technologies, the region can form an Internet platform to share data across the elderly care industry and push for the development of health-care products which are both tailor-made for targeted groups and affordable,” Liu said.