Beijing Offers RMB 15 Million Subsidy per Hospital to Accelerate Public Hospital Transformation into Rehabilitation and Nursing Facilities
Source: Beijing Youth Daily
Recently, the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress held a kick-off meeting to hear and deliberate on the municipal government’s report regarding the implementation of the proposal titled “Continuously Deepening the Integration of Medical and Elderly Care Services to Enhance the Quality of Home-Based Elderly Care.” It was reported at the meeting that this year, Beijing aims to ensure that all elderly care institutions in the city provide medical and health services to resident seniors through various forms.
Community Elderly Care Stations Provide Nearby Medical Services
Li Hongbing, Deputy Director of the Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, stated that this year the city will further accelerate the development of elderly care services, focusing on resolving key constraints in areas such as land use, facilities, integration of medical and elderly care, and service quality. Regarding the integration of medical and elderly care, the city will promote community elderly care stations as platforms for providing accessible medical services within communities, exploring models where nearby seniors can receive relatively centralized medical care at these stations.By the end of 2018, 95% of the city’s 526 elderly care institutions were able to provide integrated medical and health care services through various models.。
Wang Xiao’e, Executive Deputy Director of the Municipal Office on Aging, introduced that the city will also explore the establishment of a consortium model between elderly care institutions and medical institutions to improve the quality of medical services in elderly care facilities. The goal is to ensure that all elderly care institutions across the city can provide medical and health services to resident seniors in various forms, while promoting the development of nursing-care beds in these institutions. Meanwhile, in actively building a continuous medical service model, the city will continue to advance the construction of age-friendly hospitals. By 2019, 50% of general hospitals at the secondary level and above in the city were designated as age-friendly hospitals. Efforts will also be made to promote secondary-level and higher medical institutions to establish green channels offering convenient services for older adults, such as priority registration and medical consultation.
This Year, 150 Elderly Care Stations Are Planned to Be Built and Put into Operation
Li Hongbing stated that, in innovatively advancing the development of the elderly care service system, efforts should focus on addressing the care needs “around, beside, and at the bedside” of older adults by actively building a “three-periphery, four-level” elderly care service system to resolve elderly care challenges for seniors and their families locally.
At the municipal and district levels, two-tier elderly care service guidance centers have been established to serve as operational hubs and command platforms for citywide and regional elderly care services, integrating specialized regional resources. Currently, elderly care service guidance centers in nine districts have been completed and are in operation, while construction of the remaining centers is being accelerated.
At the subdistrict and township level, support is provided for social forces to establish elderly care centers, with a maximum subsidy of 4.5 million yuan. To date, 275 such centers have been supported in their construction, and 192 have been completed and are currently operational.
At the community level, a model of “government-provided facilities free of charge and low-cost operation by service providers” is adopted to support social forces in establishing community elderly care service stations, creating a “central service hub” for home- and community-based elderly care services. Currently, 680 such stations have been built and are in operation. This year, it is planned to establish and operate 20 elderly care centers and 150 community elderly care service stations.
Public Hospitals to Receive 15 Million Yuan in Subsidies for Transitioning to Rehabilitation Nursing
The reporter learned that,This year, the municipal finance has allocated a special fund budget of 1.381 billion yuan for elderly care services, an increase of 100 million yuan compared with 2018, representing a growth rate of 7.81%. The funds will be primarily used to support the construction and operation of street (township) elderly care centers and community (village) elderly care service stations in various districts, as well as to carry out pilot reforms in elderly care services on a categorized basis.。
Wang Xiao’e introduced that the city will further enhance its home-based medical service capabilities this year. Training in home-based medical nursing techniques and skills will be conducted to improve the capacity for providing in-home medical and nursing care to the elderly. Home visits and home hospital bed services will be provided to disabled elderly individuals who are supported separately under urban and rural special hardship assistance programs, as well as to disabled elderly individuals from special family planning families (families who have lost their only child), striving to achieve full coverage. In addition, the city plans to newly build or renovate 46 village clinics this year, and carry out mobile clinic services in remote villages to achieve full coverage of primary healthcare services in rural areas. Promotion of appropriate health technologies for the elderly, such as prevention and treatment of sleep disorders and management of polypharmacy, will be carried out, and the vaccination rates for free influenza and pneumococcal vaccines will be increased.
It is reported that, in order to alleviate the current shortage of rehabilitation medical resources,In 2019, the initiative to transform the fourth batch of public hospitals into rehabilitation and nursing care medical institutions was continued. Four district-level public hospitals in Haidian, Tongzhou, Shunyi, and Mentougou were designated for transformation, with each institution receiving a subsidy of RMB 15 million from the municipal finance.. From 2016 to 2019, the municipal finance authorities allocated a total of RMB 285 million in subsidy funds to 19 transforming institutions, achieving full coverage of rehabilitation medical institutions across all 16 districts of the city. In addition, to improve and perfect the tiered diagnosis and treatment service system, the municipal finance authorities arranged transfer payment subsidies amounting to RMB 296 million in 2019 to enhance incentive mechanisms for primary healthcare institutions.