159,000 beds for elderly by 2020

Shanghai aims to have at least 159,000 beds for seniors at nursing homes and medical institutions by 2020, under a blueprint approved by the city government yesterday.

That would represent places for 3.75 percent of the city's population aged 60 or above. This compares to a current figure of 108,000 beds — enough for 2.8 percent of the city's elderly.

However, under the blueprint of Shanghai's senior care facilities to 2020, land will be allocated and managed on the basis of a 178,000-bed target.

By the end of last year, the city had registered 631 nursing homes. In Jing'an District there were only enough beds for 1.18 percent of senior population, while the figure was 2 percent at Xuhui, Hongkou and Putuo districts.

The number of beds should be no less than 2.5 percent of the senior population in downtown, the blueprint said.

Shanghai Vice Mayor Shi Guanghui said yesterday that private senior care homes are being encouraged with preferential policies in land use, subsidies and public utility charge.

Under the blueprint, residents who pay for beds at senior care homes will be gradually provided with medical care like those who in medical institutions.

"The support of medical care is very important in the whole senior care system," Shi said.

By the end of 2020, a quarter of beds for senior care in the city should be equipped with medical care.

The number of seniors living in Shanghai is set to pass 6 million by 2025.

The figure reached 3.88 million last year, a rise of 5.5 percent on 2012.

Seniors accounted for 27 percent of the city's permanent residents.