On September 4th, at the 2023 China International Service Trade Fair, the first national group standard for elderly hospitals - "Basic Requirements for the Construction of Elderly Hospitals" was released.

According to data from the National Health Commission, around 2035, the elderly population aged 60 and above will exceed 400 million, accounting for over 30% of the total population. China will enter a stage of severe aging.

On September 4th, at the 2023 China International Service Trade Fair (hereinafter referred to as the "Service Trade Fair"), the first national group standard for elderly hospitals - the "Basic Requirements for the Construction of Elderly Hospitals" (hereinafter referred to as the "Basic Requirements") was released.

The "Basic Requirements" propose the construction principles of elderly hospitals, stipulating the basic requirements for beds and bed units, building facilities, department settings, personnel allocation, medical equipment configuration, institutional construction, cultural construction, and information construction in elderly hospitals. Suitable for newly built, renovated, and expanded elderly hospitals.

From the perspective of elderly health service standards, the 'Basic Requirements' have filled the gap in this field.

The Basic Requirements are issued by the Chinese Geriatric Association and jointly drafted by 15 units, including Beijing Geriatric Hospital, the Geriatric Medical Institution Management Branch of the Chinese Geriatric Association, Jiangsu Geriatric Hospital, New Mileage Health Group, and New Mileage Health Group Luoyang New Mileage Hospital.

Since entering an aging society at the end of the 20th century, the number and proportion of the elderly population in China have continued to grow. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2022, the population of China aged 60 and above reached 280 million, accounting for 19.8% of the total population in the country; The population aged 65 and above is 210 million, accounting for 14.9% of the total population in China. According to data from the National Health Commission, it is expected that around 2035, the elderly population aged 60 and above will exceed 400 million, accounting for over 30% of the total population, and China will enter a stage of severe aging.

According to relevant data, the current proportion of China's health and elderly care industry in the gross domestic product is about 7%, while in developed countries such as Europe and America, this proportion generally exceeds 25%. It is expected that by 2050, the scale of China's health and elderly care industry is expected to reach 100 trillion yuan.

Kong Wei, Director of the Policy Research Department of the China Association for the Elderly, stated that with the increasing demand for a better life, upgrading of quality, and improvement of consumption concepts and abilities among the elderly, the health and elderly care industry has ushered in a vast market space. The combination of healthcare and elderly care services is a major topic of people's livelihood, a long-term strategy to actively respond to population aging, and an important economic growth point under the new normal of China's economic development.

Faced with the increasing level of aging, Kong Wei believes that relevant departments should address three issues.

One is how to extend the lifespan of the elderly. According to data from the National Health Commission, the average life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in China are not equal, and elderly people have varying numbers of diseased survival periods. The elderly population has a huge demand for health services such as medical care, which poses a huge challenge to China's health resources and service supply.

The second is how to ensure the cost of chronic disease treatment for the elderly. Data predicts that by 2030, the aging population will increase the burden of chronic diseases in China by 40%, far exceeding the growth rate of health resources.

The third is how to meet the needs of the elderly with limited healthcare and elderly care services. In the past, healthcare and elderly care services were relatively independent. The former was managed by the National Health Commission, while the latter was managed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Limited medical and elderly care service resources and relatively independent service systems were far from meeting the needs of the elderly, and there was an urgent need to provide higher quality elderly care and medical services. At present, there are still problems such as weak capacity and insufficient resources in China's integrated medical and elderly care services.

In 2015, the government issued a special document proposing the basic principles, development goals, and guarantee measures for the integration of medical and elderly care. The document proposes three major models for the integration of medical care and elderly care: cooperation between medical care and elderly care institutions, support for elderly care institutions to carry out medical and health care, and the extension of medical and health care to the community.

Lin Yanglin, CEO of New Mileage Health Group, stated that there are many slogans in the health industry, but it is difficult to implement them because there is currently no business model, no business scale, and no reasonable profit on the supply side, which leads to three problems:

How can business operations continue? How to solve the industry dilemma? How to implement policy support?

Lin Yanglin stated that only a mature health industry can maximize the impact of aging on economic and social structure. A new type of medical and nursing integration system that relies on medical and operational capabilities will first become a necessity for the health and nursing industry.

The New Mileage Health Group currently has four major sectors, with more than 30000 beds in both the Medical Group and the Wellness Group.

From its exploration and practice, in June 2017, it established 100 elderly care beds in its subsidiary Dongying Honggang Hospital, initiating the exploration and transformation of medical and elderly care integration. In 2020, this model will be copied to Luoyang New Mileage Hospital. Both hospitals have become the first local tertiary elderly hospital and a model of integrated medical and nursing institutions. In 2022, the "Elderly Hospital+Elderly Care Center" medical care integration model of Dongying Honggang Hospital has also become a national level service industry standardization pilot project.

 Source: Economic Observer (Author: Qu Yixian)