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China faces aging situation and medical difficulties
中国面临人口老龄化和医疗困境
Now for more on this, we are joined in studio by CCTV's Jin Yingqiao.
Q1, Yingqiao, go deeper into the nation's aging population problem, and the latest initiative to care for them?
Jin: It is such a pressing issue, especially in view of the country's economic landscape. As some put it: the nation is aging before it gets rich. What's more alarming is that, according to official estimates, the number of elderly people with disabilities is going to surpass 46 million by 2020. For them , a regular nursing home is just not enough, even if they can manage to secure a place there. What they need is medical care, ideally within where they live. And now the government is addressing this issue, by equipping nursing homes with professional medical functions. Take a look.
"Bed blocking" is a common scenario in China's hospitals... especially for elderly patients.
Many of them remain there for months, or even years, after they have recovered...
"When asked whether she could go home, I always say 'no'. She was given a tracheotomy and needs medication every day to prevent infection. If she stays at home, when an incident occurs, she needs to go there by ambulance. It's not convenient," Patient's relative Mr. Xu said.
Extra beds for intensive care units have been set up in hospitals across Shanghai, but demand is far beyond the supply.
The hospital wants those recovered to transfer to nearby nursing homes. But relatives argue there's inadequate medical equipment and care at these facilities.
"I've visited several local nursing homes, and they don't have sputum aspirators. It's lethal when phlegm blocks her windpipe," Patient's relative Mr. Xu said.
To free up beds for those in urgent need, Shanghai has set up several "intensive care nursing homes", where medical staff from various hospitals are available for basic health care and treatment.
But relatives expect more than that.
"We know old people want to get IV in bed, but as part of the pilot program, the hospital requires all patients to go to a transfusion room,"
Nursing director with Shanghai Pudong Intensive Care Nursing Home said.
"Medical treatment is essential for elderly care. I think the government should set a standard for intensive care units at nursing homes," Yu Ming, president of Shanghai Pudong Intensive Care Nursing Home, said.
Challenges certainly remain and as experts say the country is aging rapidly, a lack of medical services and staff will exacerbate an already-sensitive situation.
Jin: Currently, Shanghai is proposing this 90-7-3 program as an answer to elderly care. Namely, 90 percent of the elderly will stay at home for care; 7 percent will rely on the community; while 3 percent rely on nursing homes. So the target of this pilot program is just improving on the 3 percent, and that is really a huge challenge.
Q2, And what experiences can we learn from other places?
Jin: Well, actually, there are quite a lot of examples from abroad. In Denmark, their focus is on the training of personnel within the nursing homes. It's reported that, initially, caregivers had a low social status in the country, which is, to some extent, also pretty true in China. But Denmark managed to build a very professional caregiver team, first by the government enforcing a twice-annual work-environment inspection for caregivers...and, secondly, schools producing high-level talent in the field. In Japan, a country with a large elderly population...routine things like rehabilitation and first-aid care are performed by nursing homes, and patients with serious illnesses are sent to nearby hospitals. So in that case, nursing homes actually outsource their medical services to hospitals.
