A nurse tends to patients at a hospital in Beijing. [Wang Jing / China Daily]

Care workers cannot keep up with demand in the capital's hospitals, prompting the Beijing health bureau to announce it will train more staff this year.

"Beijing needs an extra 7,000 care workers every year," said Deng Xiaohong, general director of the health bureau. "The project is expected to mean 60 to 80 percent of patients who want the support of a care worker will be able to enjoy a quality service within the year."

Deng said 3,000 would-be care workers will get the free professional training before the end of the year.

Some 800 people received the training in Xicheng and Fengtai districts before the end of June.

The health bureau said only those who undergo the training and get care workers' licenses will be able to provide the service at hospitals.

The project was launched in 10 hospitals in 2007, including Xuanwu Hospital, Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing Children's Hospital and Fuwai Hospital.

Another 74 hospitals joined the project during the following three years.

The program is now being rolled out to more hospitals.

Institutions taking part are required to have more care workers available and provided better services to patients.

"It was hard to find a trained care worker in the hospital. I spent one week on finding one for my father and finally got one from a care worker agency early this year," said Yang Zhiming at a hospital in the Xiaoying residential area.

"The 38-year-old woman I found had not been trained in medical college but had two years' caring experience in the hospital.

"I believe every patient wants to have access to a professional care worker but many hospitals have more doctors than care workers. However, rehabilitation is essential to patients and, if more care workers are trained, it is surely good news for patients."

A survey done by the health bureau at 84 of the hospitals taking part in the project showed 70 percent of patients did not have to look for care workers through outside agencies after the project was introduced because enough were available.

However, compared with the number of doctors in the city, care workers are still in short supply.

"There are about 130,000 doctors in Beijing. Generally speaking, the number of care workers should be at least equal to the number of doctors," said Gu Ping, vice president of the Beijing Health School. The school trains about 300 care workers every year.

"There are many renowned medical colleges in Beijing but they concentrate more on the education of doctors than training care workers. Fewer than 200 care workers from those colleges graduate each year, which is surely far below what is demanded."

According to People's Daily, about 90 percent of Beijing's care workers are migrants who received no professional training from a medical college. In order to standardize the quality of work offered, the health bureau will also carry out regular inspections of care workers, starting this month.