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SCMP Reporter

Guangzhou is having a hard time caring for 70,000 patients suffering from dementia, health experts say.

Officials say the high cost of treatment means that only about 10 per cent of  patients receive proper medical care.

The remainder are forced to stay at home, creating social problems in their communities. It costs about 3,000 yuan (HK$2,820) per patient a month to treat the illness.

The central government's health ministry last year told all provinces to set up organisations to prevent and treat dementia. The ministry hopes that by 2005, 50 per cent of cases will be detected early, rising to 60 per cent by 2010.

Guangdong, one of the richest provinces,  does not yet  have a centre to treat dementia.

The provincial health department said it had to depend on a community network to care for patients and had built community care centres, but these can accommodate only 10 per cent of cases.

At the end of last year, the health department said it would allow work units and private investors to open care centres, but Qi Yuanli, a researcher at the Guangdong Mental Health Institute,  said no centres had been built.

'People think of it as a welfare service that should be provided by the government and they are not sure that it will be profitable,' Dr Qi said.

The incidence of dementia is relatively high in Guangzhou because a higher standard of health care in the city is lengthening life spans. The condition is common among  elderly people.



Guangzhou facing battle on dementia