China works to meet demand for elderly nursing care beds

BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- As a country poised to address the issue of its aging population, China is now moving to tackle problems in elderly care, especially the proportionate lack of nursing care beds for seniors.

China has a considerable population of elderly people with disabilities, yet the huge demand for professional elderly care services has yet to be met.

To bridge the gap, China's State Council recently released a plan that specifies a host of supportive measures to boost the supply of nursing beds in elderly care institutions, and to raise their proportion in such institutions to 55 percent by 2025 -- a target outlined in China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

Support will be delivered to approximately 1,000 public elderly care institutions to increase the number of nursing beds, and more of the central government budget will be invested in projects to construct new nursing care facilities for the elderly and upgrade care services, according to the newly released plan.

Efforts will be made to guide local authorities to implement differentiated subsidies for ordinary beds and nursing beds, improve protocols to verify eligible nursing beds, and establish regulations for the evaluation of the standard and quality of long-term care services, according to the plan.

While the supply of nursing beds for the elderly in professional institutions will be increased, community and home-based care services are also encouraged.

Many localities have piloted at-home elderly care services, offering such things as elderly friendly facilities, nursing beds and monitoring equipment.

Institutions are encouraged to provide professional care services directly to homes, which will also help meet demand.