A Foundation presents a study that says that Spain will require more that 70.000 long term care beds to cope with demography
The Fundación Economía y Salud, published at the beginning of 2021 an interesting study about the development of the Law on Dependency and its repercussions on the nursing home industry.
It focus on an analysis of the evolution of the implementation of the Law and current situation, the need of new beds in nursing homes to accommodate demographic trends and how much investment would it be required to face those future needs.
The main conclussions of the study are that
• As for today (2021) to comply with the World Health Organisation of roughly 5 places in a nursing home for 100 people over 65 recommendation, Spain would need to create 75,354 new residential places.
• Building 75,354 new residential places for the elderly in Spain would require the investment of €4,521,240,000, an investment that would be carried out by the private sector incentivized by the administration compromise to finance stays in those places once built and put in place,
• 37,677 direct jobs would be created in a stable employment sector.
• The cost for the administration of maintaining 75,354 new residential places would be 1,570,380,374.16 € annual.
• During the first 6 years, the administration obtains a positive return by reducing its public deficit.
During the presentation of the study Giménez Artés, President of the Fundación Economia y Salud after analyzing the problems that arose in the nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, attributable in his opinion to a health services collapse, concluded that “there is no doubt that we are facing a strategic sector that not only provides quality of life for the elderly, but can also provide undoubted support to the health system if they establish adequate health and social coordination, as well as a clear stimulus to economic activity generating investment, employment and significant economic returns ”.
He also spelled out some basic information
- Aging in the European Union is a fact, in 2005 the population over 65 years old corresponded to 15.60% of the total population, in 2019 it increased to 19.20% and it is estimated that by 2040 it will be 26.80 %. In Spain it represents 16.80% in 2005, 19.40% in 2019 and an estimated 31.30% in 2040.
- The average business volume in the long-term care sector in 2019 in the EU amounts to 1.55% of GDP, reaching € 216 billion per year. In Spain the percentage is 0.71%, which represents € 859 million.
- In Spain, 717,044 beneficiaries of the Dependency Law were served in 2009. Ten years later the figure rises to 385,037.
- The waiting list currently amounts to 854 people plus 159,193 who are pending resolution.
- The investment would have repercussions that would entail positive returns for the administrations due to savings in social benefits, tax revenues and the stimulation of economic activity.
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