(China Daily) BEIJING – Meng Xianping registered to get his mother into a local nursing home at the end of 2009, but he and the rest of the family – three generations living under one roof – are still waiting as the matriarch approaches 90.
The nursing home, named Evergreen, said that Meng’s mother is not the only one waiting for a place in the home, which has 500 beds: it’s had about 2,700 people on its waiting list – since 2008.
In fact, this phenomenon of finding it hard to locate a bed in an affordable nursing home in Beijing, not to mention elsewhere in China, is not as rare as one might think.
“The nation is suffering from a great shortage of old-age homes,” said Yan Qingchun, deputy director of the China National Committee on Aging (CNCA).
Beijing had approximately 90,000 people waiting for a place in a nursing home, at the end of 2009, but there were only 30,000 beds available, according to official statistics.
Meanwhile, the number of people nationwide aged 60 or older amounted to 167 million by 2009. That was 12.5 percent of the population, according to the CNCA.
Continue: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-10/25/content_11451454.htm