Bed shortage forces patients to wait
- Source: Global Times
- [08:08 August 05 2010]
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"But these elders really need a place that is more specialized, and one that can cater to their needs," he said. "Hospitals are not long-term care facilities."
Over at Shanghai First People's Hospital in Hongkou district, the situation is similar, according to Gong Wei, deputy head of emergency services.
"We try to persuade older patients that are no longer in need of our care to transfer to smaller hospitals or community clinics that have more available beds, but they're unwilling, and we don't have the heart to force them out," he told the Global Times Wednesday.
According to a home-care worker surnamed Bai at Shanghai Oriental Senior Living, a home for seniors in Jiading district, some nursing homes prefer to send their patients to stay at hospitals during hot weather days when old people are more likely to suffer from heat-related illnesses.
"It's safer to send them to hospital because they will get better treatment there," she told the Global Times Wednesday. "Some nursing homes don't have enough qualified medical staff on duty and their facilities aren't as reliable as those at hospitals."
According to Lu Wei, a council member from the Shanghai Senior Citizen Foundation, a non-governmental organization that promotes the rights of the elderly, the situation illustrates the lack of support senior residents receive from the government.
"The government really needs to invest in more facilities for senior citizens," she told the Global Times Wednesday. "Seniors need reliable healthcare in their vulnerable years, including nursing home subsidies.
"If more centers are built and are available to the elderly at an affordable cost then adults would not feel the need to send their aging parents to hospitals while they are at work during the day."
The issue demands attention now, said Lu, whose urging comes just days after a government report released earlier this week said that by 2013, some 80 percent of senior residents in the city will rely on their only child to look after them.
