To improve the efficiency of service provision, Croatia will need about 30% more long-term care workers for the elderly by 2040, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The key results and recommendations of the OECD report were presented by the Institute of Public Finance on Monday in a comment piece entitled “How to attract and keep employees in the long-term care system for the elderly”.

According to projections by the European Commission, nearly one in three people in Croatia will be older than 65 years in 2050, and roughly a third of people above the age of 65 will be more than 80 years old. Due to the ageing population and consequently the greater frequency of chronic health conditions, there will be growing demand for long-term care.

In Croatia, care is mostly provided by the family, but since family ties are becoming increasingly weaker and a growing number of women are joining the labour market, there will be an increase in demand for formal long-term care in nursing homes, family homes, foster families, and at home.

Although not an OECD member, the report included certain data on Croatia, noting that in 2016 Croatia had two employees in the long-term care sector per 100 persons older than 65 years, while the OECD average was five.

Countries that had fewer such employees than Croatia are Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Portugal, Poland and Greece, while similar numbers were recorded in Italy, Hungary and Slovenia. On the other hand, Sweden and Norway had about 13 long-term care givers per 100 persons.

OECD said that without appropriate employment and job retention measures there will not be enough care givers because their number grew more slowly than that of the elderly people requiring care.

In the coming decades, the number of long-term care workers will need to increase by 60% by 2040 – equivalent to an additional 13.5 million workers – across the OECD to keep the current ratio of carers to elderly people, OECD said.

To attract workers, it will be necessary to ensure good working conditions and additional training. Their work could be facilitated by the use of appropriate technology, better work organisation and less administrative work.