Workers could be laid off and the quality of care could drop because of changes being planned for 75 seniors' homes, legislators and workers' representatives said yesterday.
The government plans to slash the number of beds at the 75 homes from 10,700 to 6,200 and switch them from seniors capable of looking after themselves to seniors who need personal and medical attention.
Speaking at a Legco panel meeting on welfare services, assistant director of Social Welfare Kathy Ng Ma Kam-han said the government had already developed an elderly housing programme for those who could look after themselves.
'Elderly who are living in their own homes can receive home-based and centre-based community care services instead of living in self-care hostels,' Mrs Ng said.
More than 60 per cent of the elderly population is now living in public housing.
Legislators and representatives of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service generally agreed there was a need for the change, but worried that workers could be laid off and service quality would fall.
Unionist legislator Lee Cheuk-yan urged the government to include representatives from the elderly homes workers' union in a taskforce set up by the Social Welfare Department last year to work on the proposal.