More for-profit companies in the elderly care sector
Published: Friday, Nov 10th 2023, 10:40
Updated At: Friday, Nov 10th 2023, 10:43
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The privatization of nursing care for the elderly is progressing in Switzerland. In 2022, 47.3 percent of retirement and nursing homes were owned by for-profit companies. The same trend can be seen in assistance and care at home.
Between 2021 and 2022, the number of for-profit companies in the retirement market increased by 8.6 percent, significantly more than the number of public or non-profit institutions (0.2 percent), as reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Friday. Around 180 private companies were active in the sector
The proportion of privately operated homes in 2021 was still 45.6%. With the increase, private companies offered 42.3% of care places last year. They operated 1485 retirement and care homes.
The remaining retirement and nursing homes were public (22.9%) or private with public subsidies (29.8%). The most common legal form is the foundation with 29.4 percent, followed by the public limited company with 24.8 percent. Almost one in three homes belonged to a company with several operations.
Stagnating wages for skilled workers
The costs of care homes rose by 2.6% to CHF 11.05 billion in 2022. The highest increase of 44 percent was for outsourced services. These 164.3 million francs were mainly for temporary or agency staff without an employment contract with one of the homes.
Expenses for energy and water rose by 39%. The wage bill for qualified staff remained unchanged at CHF 2.27 billion, while that for assistant staff rose by 2.9% to CHF 1.64 billion.
Employment in care homes stagnated in 2022 for the second year in a row. It corresponded to 100,640 full-time positions. Nevertheless, the number of people with an employment contract was higher over the course of the year than in 2021, which indicates a high turnover rate of 28%. This means that over a quarter of the workforce was replaced.
More unqualified people in the private sector
The number of nursing staff fell by 0.5 percent. At the same time, the qualification level decreased. The number of qualified staff fell by 1.6%. This contrasts with an increase of 0.7 percent in unqualified or low-skilled nursing staff. Unqualified or low-skilled staff accounted for 42 percent of the nursing workforce in private retirement and care homes and 37 percent in public facilities.
The number of long-term places fell by 0.5 percent year-on-year to 96,245, while the number of residents rose by 2.5 percent, increasing the occupancy rate to 91.2 percent. This figure is still below the pre-corona level. In the homes, short stays increased by 14%. Outpatient care in day or night structures grew by 8 percent.
Higher entry age - shorter stay
Between 2021 and 2022, the average age of admission to a care home rose by seven months to 81.7 years for men and by four months to 84.3 years for women. Almost a third of residents were over 90 years old, and 2161 people were even over 100.
On average, people spent 2.3 years in a home (2021: 2.4). In 2022, 32,556 people died in a retirement or nursing home, an increase of 6.1 percent. Both admissions and admissions increased, so that the fluctuation rate rose to 46.7 percent (2021: 44.3 percent).
Increase in private Spitex bills
In contrast to the care home sector, the Spitex services continued to grow. Employment in this sector increased by 3.4 percent to 28,056 people. For-profit companies in particular expanded their activities considerably: The services invoiced by them increased by 13.6 percent.
The increase was 1.3% for non-profit and public Spitex services and 6.7% for independent care professionals. In total, Spitex services assisted 458,600 people, four percent more than in 2021. Costs amounted to CHF 3.1 billion, an increase of 4.7 percent.
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