The Ministry of Health and Food Safety has issued the Geriatric Health Service Operational Guidelines for FY 2083/84 to make healthcare for senior citizens more accessible, systematic and elderly-friendly. The programme is being implemented through 68 hospitals receiving federal conditional grants, with designated facilities spread across all seven provinces. Hospitals must coordinate geriatric services through their social service units and provide elderly patients with priority access to appropriate treatment and assistance.
Under the service arrangement, hospitals must provide geriatric-friendly care across departments and wards, verify beneficiaries primarily through official identification showing name, address and age, and give elderly patients priority according to need. Where a senior citizen is enrolled in the health insurance programme, treatment should first be provided through insurance, with the geriatric programme used for services not covered. Poor, helpless and destitute elderly patients admitted to hospitals are to receive free or subsidized treatment, while institutions are expected to coordinate care through designated social-service personnel.
The guidelines establish significant age-based concessions. Senior citizens aged 60–69 are entitled to a 50% discount on specified health services, those aged 70–79 receive a 75% discount, and those aged 80–84 receive a 100% discount on the prescribed treatment services. People aged 85 and above may receive all available hospital health services free of charge based on their economic condition. However, these concessions do not apply when a patient voluntarily chooses treatment in a private ward or cabin. Hospitals with more than 50 beds are also expected to make separate outpatient arrangements for elderly patients, while larger facilities are to strengthen dedicated geriatric-care arrangements.
The programme’s grant is to be used primarily for elderly healthcare, with the guideline prioritizing 80% of available funds for treatment of poor, helpless and vulnerable senior citizens and allowing the remaining portion for supporting geriatric-service operations and related needs. Hospitals must regularly enter service information into the designated online reporting system. The ministry expects the programme to improve access to affordable, respectful and effective healthcare and increase senior citizens’ satisfaction with hospital services.
