Recently, the Guangdong Province 2025 Provincial Elderly Health Work Conference was held in Guangzhou. Liu Yuanliang, member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Provincial Health Commission, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. Liu Jianqing, the second level inspector of the Provincial Health Commission, presided over the meeting. More than 90 representatives from provincial units, relevant departments of the Provincial Health Commission, directly affiliated units of the Commission, and health administrative departments of various prefecture level cities attended the conference.

Core content of the meeting

Significant achievements have been made in elderly health work by 2024

The construction of geriatric medicine has reached the standard ahead of schedule, the quality of elderly friendly medical institutions has been upgraded, the pilot program of palliative care has been accelerated, the integration of medical care and elderly care has been developed, the service supply has grown rapidly, and the service capacity has continued to strengthen.

Key tasks for elderly health work in 2025:

The meeting pointed out that in 2025, the elderly health system in the province should be led by building a demonstration province for high-quality development of health and hygiene, focusing on healthy aging, further improving the elderly health service system, solidly carrying out health promotion actions, deeply promoting innovative development of medical and elderly care, and continuously enhancing the sense of health gain and happiness of the elderly.

The meeting emphasized:

Efforts should be made to improve the elderly health service system, vigorously strengthen the construction of elderly hospitals and geriatric medicine departments, actively create elderly friendly medical institutions, and improve the hospice care service system.

Solidly carry out elderly health promotion actions, extensively promote elderly health science popularization, launch national actions to address dementia in the elderly with high standards, and implement high-quality health services for disabled elderly people.

Deepen the innovative development of medical and elderly care integration, continuously expand the supply of medical and elderly care integration services, focus on the construction of medical and elderly care integration projects, standardize and improve the quality of medical and elderly care integration services, and ensure safety production in the field of elderly health.

Coordinate and integrate multiple resources, improve the policy system, strengthen the construction of the elderly health statistical survey system, and enhance the ability to guarantee elderly health services.

Local experience exchange:

At the meeting, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shantou, Qingyuan, Nanhai District of Foshan City, Xinyi City of Maoming, and Zhongshan City respectively made experience exchange speeches on the elderly health service system, health promotion actions, and the integration of medical care and elderly care. Guangzhou is promoting pilot programs for screening and palliative care for elderly dementia, while Shenzhen is integrating psychological care programs with public health services.

Policy background, challenges and opportunities

The Current Status and Trends of Aging in Guangdong Province

By the end of 2023, the population aged 60 and above in Guangdong accounted for 14.24% (18.09 million), and the population aged 65 and above accounted for 9.96% (12.66 million). It is expected to enter a moderately aging society by 2030 (with over 20% of the population aged 60 and above).

Challenge: The mental health problems of the elderly are prominent, with high rates of anxiety, depression, and dementia, and insufficient coverage of grassroots psychological care services.

Policy support and market opportunities

The 2025 Guangdong Provincial Government Work Report clearly proposes to increase the basic pension and medical insurance subsidy standards for urban and rural residents, and develop a multi-level pension insurance system;

Guangdong will include "providing health management, integrated medical and elderly care services, and improving the service level of elderly care institutions" as one of the ten livelihood issues by 2025, and promise to provide free home services such as health management for over 25000 disabled elderly people aged 65 and above;

By 2025, Guangdong will also promote the addition of more than 1000 nursing beds, with a medical and elderly care integration service rate of over 40% for people aged 65 and above. It will also promote the construction rate of township level public elderly care institutions rated as first level or above and county-level public elderly care institutions rated as second level or above to reach 80%;

Vigorously developing the "silver hair economy", strengthening the research and promotion of elderly products, accelerating the development of the rehabilitation aid industry, and planning to achieve a total output value of 700-1000 billion yuan in the elderly products industry in Guangdong Province by 2025.