Feng Jie is a trained nurse who decided a year and half ago to leave her job at a state-run hospital and work with a private nursing company.She says that unlike her job at the hospital, she now gets to spend more quality time with patients and as an added bonus her pay is better.Still, few have followed in her footsteps. "It was a risk . All of my classmates still work in hospitals.I thought that I'd give it a try because this industry, this type of job is still an emerging field,” she said.China's population is aging at one of the fastest rates in the world. By the middle of the century, more than 450 million people will be over 60 years of age.China lacks both the facilities and the staff to adequately care for the elderly, says Du Peng, director of the Institute of Gerontology at Renmin University - the only program of its kind in China.“We have four million beds available, one caretaker for every three elderly.We should have more than a million caretakers, if in the future we will have 30 million elderly then we need 10 million caretakers," she explained."But at the moment in China every year only 6,000 gerontology professionals are certified.”Right now most of China’s nursing homes are state owned, but through incentives to private enterprises, caregivers and stipends for the elderly, the government is looking to shake up the market.
