VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s population has shown increasingly clear signs of rapid aging, Pham Thang, director of the Central Hospital for Geriatrics, said at a seminar in HCM City last week.
The country had an extra one million elders for every 10 years in the 1979-1999 period but since 2009, there have appeared 1.2 million people aged over 60 in every two years, Thang told the seminar held by the British Council.
The current number of people aged over 60 in Vietnam is nearly nine million.
The aging of Vietnam’s population will surge in the next 20 years. An average of 11 Vietnamese of working age feed an elder at the moment but in the 2030-2050 period, the number would drop to three.
Thang said that although the population is aging rapidly, healthcare and social services for the elderly in Vietnam are still limited.
In foreign countries, a 2,000-bed hospital is required to have one-fourth of its beds for the elderly. Meanwhile, Vietnam has few hospitals with geriatrics and geriatricians.
Dam Huu Dac, vice chairman of the Elderly People Association, said that although the Elderly People Law was passed over two years ago, Vietnam still lacks specific policies for treatment of old people.
Around 5% of the people aged over 80 have no pensions due to their ages being unidentified, and over 54,000 elders are still living in shabby homes.
According to a survey by the hospital, the medical cost for an elder is ten times higher than that of a young person.
Source: SGT