City passes first elderly-care services law

The city’s first elderly-care services law was passed on Wednesday.

The law requires the city to provide convenience to the elderly population in transport and mobility, hospital services and administrative services.

In providing Internet services, public service providers should take into consideration accessibility for the elderly population and introduce smart information services tailored to their needs, while traditional ways of providing services should be kept and improved, the law requires.

To address calls from legislators to pay attention to the welfare of medical workers of medical institutions within elderly-care service facilities, the law supports doctors and nurses employed in other medical institutions to moonlight in those institutions.

The law requires a floor area of community facilities for the elderly of not less than 40 square meters per thousand residents, subject to adjustment along with the development of the economy and society.

All new residential complexes should include such facilities, and current facilities below the new legal standard should be improved.

To ensure land for such facilities, land reserved for public welfare purposes shall be prioritized for their construction if it meets planning and environmental protection requirements.

Elderly-care workers are required to present valid health statements, and those with records of discriminating against, insulting, abusing or abandoning elderly people should be banned from working in elderly care.

Elderly-care facilities are required to assign specific workers to health management and make contingency plans for infectious disease outbreaks at facilities as well as to ensure timely reports of patients with infectious diseases or suspected cases to the authorities.

The law supports foreign investors to provide elderly-care services in Shanghai.

It also encourages elderly people to take care of each other and supports the establishment of mechanisms that enable them to get free access to elderly-care services by helping fellow elderly residents, such as the “time bank” for elderly people being experimented with in five Shanghai districts.

The law will take effect from March 20 next year.

By the end of last year, Shanghai's elderly population totaled 5.2 million, or 35.2 percent of permanent residents. Around 819,800 of them were aged 80 or older.

About 90 percent of elderly people in Shanghai live at home.