Elderly care services to be further developed

The General Office of the State Council issued a document on Dec 21 to push the development of elderly care services, calling for efforts to build a system that combines home-based services with community agencies, and medical services with nursing care.

It urged work to form a unified market for elderly care services that’s efficient, standardized, and competitively fair.

The document stressed more supervision over the quality and safety of elderly care agencies and responsibilities to eliminate safety risks, hidden dangers in construction, fire control, food, and services.

Government at all levels should promote and guide the agencies to fulfill their responsibilities in food safety, supervise and administrate their licensed medical services, and their purchase and use of medicines, consumables, medical devices, and other products, according to the document.

It also stressed management of elderly care practitioners and efforts to guide them to adopt good conducts, and professional skills.

Agencies must raise and use funds related to elderly care services in a lawful and compliant manner, the document said. Better supervision should be carried out to ensure safety in medical insurance funds, and financial institutions must be further supervised in providing new elderly care financial products and services, it also said.

According to the document, agencies must keep optimizing internal management, standardize services, reasonably avoid risks, and properly handle disputes.

They also should enhance risk prevention awareness and ability to cope with risks, and reduce losses caused by emergencies as much as possible, the document said, adding that they should prevent and control infectious diseases, and guide the elderly to protect themselves.

For better coordination and cooperation among departments, the document required avoiding law enforcement by multiple authorities and effectively reducing the burden on elderly care agencies and practitioners.

Health departments should collect health management information of the elderly and form basic databases for health archives, based on public health management projects for the elderly, the document said.

In order to promote the high-quality development of elderly care services, standards and evaluation systems should be established and improved, and basic standards for service quality and safety in agencies implemented, the document said.

Meanwhile, publicity and education in elderly care services must be conducted, in order to create a social atmosphere of respecting, loving, and helping the elderly, promote the public to support comprehensive supervision of elderly care services, and facilitate high-quality development of the industry.