Senior care dilemma as cross-border option ends

Cross-border care

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Shenzhen Society for Rehabilitation Yee Hong Heights is a residential nursing center in Shenzhen, Guangdong. The center is supported by the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, a charitable organization.

It is one of just two facilities in Guangdong that implements the Pilot Residential Care Services Scheme. Launched in June 2014, the scheme offers places at nursing homes and residential care services to Hong Kong seniors on the city government's Central Waiting List for Subsidized Long Term Care Services.

The other facility is the Hong Kong Jockey Club Helping Hand Zhaoqing Home for the Elderly in Zhaoqing, part of an 11-city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

As of Sept 21, 165 seniors from Hong Kong were living at Yee Hong Heights, 116 of them subsidized by the government. The remaining 49 pay the fees themselves.

A two-bed suite with comprehensive nursing care costs 7,350 yuan ($1,108) a month but the cost rises to 8,330 yuan if special nursing care is required.

"Nursing care in the mainland, especially in places such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou (capital of Guangdong), is becoming increasingly unaffordable for ordinary people," Wong Chi-keung said.

The 73-year-old, who lives in a nursing home in Dongguan, another city in the Greater Bay Area, pays 3,000 yuan per month.

"Compared with Hong Kong, the cost of living in Dongguan is lower. But that's only if you don't see a doctor. If you get ill and go to the hospital, the high medical fees will immediately raise your expenses to a high level."