Given that the dual option still exists, a number of surveys and studies suggest that government-backed improvements to community care services would lift confidence and allow far more seniors to stay at home or within their own communities.

Improvements urged

In 2015, the city was shocked when it was revealed that seniors at a private nursing home in the New Territories were forced to wait naked on a rooftop before taking showers. The reports sparked criticism and public calls for improvements.

After several attempts to improve the quality of nursing homes, the government started a pilot scheme in March last year to hand out vouchers for residential and community care services. Seniors could choose to switch homes or community care centers if the service was substandard. The policy, dubbed "money-following-the-user", aimed to review the practice of giving subsidies to nursing homes even though seniors have no say in the services offered.

Kwok, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the coupon program will create a market driven by the elderly, resulting in nursing homes competing for clients, boosting the quality of services offered.

No easy answers

However, there is no easy answer to Lam's problem. The hospital constantly asks when his mother will be able to vacate her bed, but although he has been looking for a government-funded place in a private nursing home, he has had no luck.

As a stopgap, Lam is trying to arrange for his mother to live short-term in a private nursing home on the first floor of their apartment block. That would allow her to have the best of both worlds; she would receive high-quality care, but if she found her circumstances overwhelming, she could visit him, which woud help her to regain a sense of normality.

However, at the moment the only certainty Lam and his mother have is that their quest for a place in a public facility is unlikely to end soon.

Contact the writer at stushadow@chinadailyhk.com