Hong Kong welfare minister warns low quality care homes for elderly, disabled could be replaced in future under new bill for failing to meet requirements
- Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong says care homes to be given eight-year transition period for facilities to meet new requirements
- Government’s recently gazetted bill proposes raising minimum area of floor space per resident and required number of staff in care homes for elderly and disabled
![Hong Kong’s welfare minister has warned that low-quality care homes for the elderly and disabled could be replaced for failing to meet requirements. Photo: Felix Wong](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1020x680/public/d8/images/canvas/2022/05/15/485178b3-e305-4892-b182-82b953ddb0e3_47fb5b3b.jpg?itok=t07zl4AT&v=1652626179)
Hong Kong’s welfare minister has warned that residential care homes for the elderly and disabled that do not meet new requirements could be replaced in the future.
Writing on his official blog on Sunday, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said the Residential Care Homes Legislation Bill 2022, which proposed raising the minimum area of floor space per resident and the required number of staff in care homes, allowed for an eight-year transition period divided into two stages for facilities to meet new requirements.
Facilities providing a high level of care would have four years to increase their minimum area of floor space per resident from 6.5 to eight square metres, while further raising it to 9.5 square metres in the following four years, Law said.
“This legislative amendment is not some small changes here and there. If we can complete the legislative work, and after the transition period, some care homes still do not comply with the requirements, they are likely to be replaced gradually with better care homes,” Law added.
He said that those providing medium to low levels of care should increase their minimum area of floor space per resident to eight square metres in eight years.
“There are currently 640 care homes which do not meet the newly announced standards, which will mean the reduction of around 6,300 care home places. But there are also around 8,700 empty places for those which match the standards, so residents living in those 640 homes will not lose the care they need,” he said.
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