New regulation for aged care facilities

Shanghai's top legislature is set to make a new regulation for the better management of the city's aged care centers as its average increases.

The Shanghai Municipal People's Congress released on Thursday the regional laws and regulations it is about to draft, revise, discuss, study or organize a vote on in 2013, covering sectors ranging from the protection of minors to mental health improvement, collective wage talks and domestic violence.

But Ding Wei, director of the legislative affairs subcommittee of the congress' standing committee, said the public was very concerned about regulations on the city's aged care centers, which offer a total of 100,000 beds to senior citizens.

The country has proposed to add another 3.4 million beds by 2015 by setting up new facilities or expanding established ones.

By the end of 2012, there were 3.67 million people aged 60 or older registered in Shanghai, accounting for 25.7 percent of its total registered population, official figures show. Shanghai is also home to millions of migrants who are not registered in the city.

According to Ding, the newly proposed regulations will address issues including setting up new facilities, preventing and dealing with the maltreatment of elderly people at these centers, and addressing disputes between senior citizens and the facility in which they live.

A draft version of the regulation will be laid before the congress' standing committee for the first round of discussions in November, with hopes that it will be approved in the first half of 2014.