Spain has a lack of nursing home beds, which sometimes means that old people who cannot afford a private bed have to wait a long time for a free one. But the tradition of old people living with their families helps to compensate for a lack of places, doctors say.
Dr Isidoro Ruipérez, head of the geriatric unit at the Hospital Central de la Cruz Roja, Madrid, and president of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, says that long term care of elderly people is "not guaranteed at all" in Spain.
He points out that, with a mean of 2.5 (public and private) nursing home beds per 100 people older than 65 years, provision is far below the ratio recommended by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development of 5 per 100 people aged over 65.
When old people cannot afford a place in a private nursing home, they are offered a place in a publicly financed facility, to which they have to contribute 80% of their retirement pension. If an elderly person has neither personal savings nor a pension, the state will look for a free bed for them, but the person usually has to join a long waiting list.
In the meantime, the state will offer home services through home healthcare teams based in primary health care as well as free social services (two to five hours a day) offered by the Ministry of Social Affairs. These services compensate, to some extent, for the lack of nursing home places. In Spain, only 15% of people aged over 65 lived alone.
