At least 90 percent of senior citizens in Beijing are expected to stay at home and be cared for by their families by 2020, according to a development plan on elder care services released on Nov. 25 by the city's civil affairs authority.
The Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau predicted the number of permanent residents aged 60 and older to reach 4 million by 2020, compared to 3.2 million at the end of last year.
The plan said that the other 10 percent of seniors, or about 400,000 people, will be cared for by communities or nursing homes. Physically or mentally disabled residents will be accepted mainly by nursing homes in Beijing.
The number of beds at nursing homes is expected to increase by about 50 percent from the current level to 160,000 by 2020, as the city will push for the development of elder-care facilities, according to the plan.
The bureau said that the rapid aging population has worsened the problem of severe shortage of facilities for nursing and care of the infirm elderly. At the end of last year, there were only 3.4 beds available for every 100 permanent residents aged 60 or above in Beijing.
A report by the Xinhua News Agency said that the waiting list for an empty bed at Beijing No. 1 Social Welfare House, a well-known nursing home in Beijing, stretches decades into the future due to the lack of beds and the number of applicants.
A report released on July 16 by the China Research Center on Aging said that although less than 20 percent of nursing homes in China's major cities are profitable, homes for middle-income seniors are still lacking in number from what is needed.
The report was based on questionnaires submitted by 257 nursing homes in 12 major cities, including Tianjin and Chongqing, as well as information collected from civil affairs authorities last year.
According to the report, various types of nursing homes in China have provided more than 5.5 million at the end of last year, which was equivalent to 26 beds for every 1,000 people 60 years old or above.
China's population of older people has increased rapidly in recent years, reaching 212 million by the end of last year, which drove the development of elder-care industries.
Kong Wei, an official at the China National Committee on Aging, said that it would need more government subsidies to encourage the development of nursing homes.
Based on the nursing homes surveyed, nearly half said that their books were balanced, while 19.4 percent said they gained a profit, and a third said they had been losing money.
Most nursing homes in the country are either low-end or expensive. The low-end nursing homes provide only basic food and living necessities, and also lack medical or entertainment facilities, while the expensive high-end ones are well-equipped and have high standard of service.
Kong said that many nursing homes built in recent years target the high-end market since they can charge more, recover their investment sooner and generate profits faster. She added that there is a high number of empty beds in many nursing homes because they are located far from urban centers.
Wu Yushao, director of the China Research Center on Aging, said that the number of beds provided by homes in China is expected to increase to 6.6 million by the end of this year, close to the level of developed countries.