Chinese elderly need more qualified nursing homes

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China has the world's largest population, and it’s also aging much faster than any other country in the world. Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs shows the country will have around 480 million seniors by 2050, or about a third of the nation’s population. However, China’s elderly care industry is still in the rudimentary stage. There’s only small number of nursing homes that are well managed and well-known on the market.

Nursing workers usually begin their work for the day quite early in the morning. /CGTN Photo

57-year-old Wang Miaoran gets up around 5:00 a.m. and begins her work at a nursing home at 6:00 a.m. every day. Her work continues till eight. And she only takes two days off in a month. She’s been here for seven years, one of the most loyal employees at this nursing home.

Nursing the seniors can be quite demanding. /CGTN Photo

Wang’s work is quite demanding. She’s responsible for six seniors who aren’t strong enough to look after themselves. She’s trying her best to help them have good hygiene. She says the seniors feel delighted when they have good hygiene.

Wang’s job also includes cleaning the room, wheeling them outside, feeding three of them and dealing with their incontinence.

Wang says she’s happy being with the seniors and they’ve been nice to her. /CGTN Photo

Wang is one of 45 nursing workers who look after 140 people. The staff has an average age of 50. It’s always difficult to find younger nursing workers. Wang can earn around 3,000 yuan a month. She’s satisfied with the salary, she makes and is willing to stay for several more years.

Wang Miaoran has been working here for 7 years. /CGTN Photo

Wang is working at the Shanxi Provincial Home for Seniors, a public nursing home in the provincial capital Taiyuan. It’s the most popular facility of its kind in the province. Many seniors say the amenities and services are great, and they enjoy living there.

The Shanxi Provincial Home for Seniors has nice views and excellent facilities. /CGTN Photo

But there aren’t many places like this nursing home in the country. Most suffer from the high turnover rate of the workers and clients, due to mismanagement and poor services.

Many nursing home managers come to seek the advice of Du Wenjie, the head of the Shanxi facility. Du warns that they shouldn’t always expect the government to offer more subsidies, and improving management is the key to survive.

Many nursing homes hope to learn from the well-managed ones. /CGTN Photo

Du pointed out that many public and private nursing homes are short on management skills. Good management will help keep the nursing workers, ensure better services and bring in more customers. And the local government also needs to build more well-managed public nursing homes as models, from which private ones can easily learn.

And Du believes that due to the growing demand and continuous efforts from the government and private enterprises, the industry will nevertheless have a bright future.