Natali, an acquisition of Nanjing Cenbest, has completed acquisition of an Israeli company A. S. Nursing & Welfare Ltd. (Nursing & Welfare).

Nanjing Cenbest will introduce the standardised Nursing & Welfare service and will organise nursing training in China after the acquisition. The purpose is to build the largest and most advanced housekeeping service corporation, which will also be the most influential brand in China.

In January 2016, Nanjing Cenbest released plans to acquire assets such as An Kang Tong and Natali. In these plans, it mentioned that negotiation between shareholders from Natali and Nursing & Welfare had been concluded and the contract had already been signed. According to available reports, Nursing & Welfare’s main business is the provision of daily life care and nursing services to the aged. They have more than 30 years of nursing experience and 25 branch offices across Israel. Nursing & Welfare, with about 6,000 nursing professionals, offers the following three main services: the provision of care at home for the aged who cannot live independently and other care services at different intervals and degree; the provision of professional personal care for elderly patients; consultation for the aged on care and nursing services. There is also very good cooperation between Nursing & Welfare and the Israel Social Security Authority, the Ministry of Labour, Social Services and the Ministry of National Defence, which has lasted for years.

Nanjing Cenbest also decided, after the acquisition, that Natali will place a focus on exploitation of the Chinese senior care service market in the future. The partnership with Nursing & Welfare will bring customers a richer and more sustainable service and will jointly exploit customer resources and achieve synergy.

"Housekeeping and senior care services are sunrise industries that should never be denigrated.” On two occasions this year, during discussions with the Shandong delegation, Premier Li Keqiang said that housekeeping services and social senior care are “new powers” of society. However, the vigorous growth of the two sunrise industries has resulted in a great shortage of personnel in some sections, especially in professional nursing and housekeeping.

With the increase of only children and malignant disease cases as well as the aggravation of an aging society, housekeeping and nursing will become more and more prevalent. Many claim that it is not always easy to find satisfactory housekeeping or nursing personnel. More housekeeping and nursing service personnel, especially nurses, will ease the burden on them and also on family members to some degree. Whatever the stage of patient rehabilitation, be it in hospital or at home, professional nursing services such as rehabilitation training, physiotherapy and assistance in patient mobility are an urgent need in many families.

However, we also face a rather disordered nursing industry. Problems such as a low entry threshold, a lack of a uniform practice standard and code, no proper evaluation and supervision system, no standard training, and employment with no need for certification, stand out in existing nursing services. Sometimes a patient or their family cannot find qualified service. In the two sessions in 2016, Ji Shihua, the CPPCC member, Deputy Director of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (PCCK) of the provincial Party committee of Zhejiang Province and the inspector, suggested that a standard for the nursing industry was necessary. She made the point that there was no existing nursing service standard and also that nursing personnel should obtain proper training, certification and induction before starting work. Nursing personnel should be trained in nursing and treatment, with proper emphasis on the characteristics of any particular disease in the patients they would be looking after. This is essential to ensure provision of a professional and customised care service.

Referring to the present situation where the senior care and housekeeping service lacks a standard nursing service mode and content, Bu Jiangyong, Chairman of Natali (China) and An Kang Tong, told journalists that the service mode used by Nursing & Welfare would not simply be copied. It was more important to establish a training system and standard, learn from experience, and organise nursing training to cultivate a large number of professional nursing personnel. At the same time, it was very important to build their own service standard with respect to actual conditions in China. “Our purpose is to build the largest and most advanced Chinese housekeeping service corporation which is also the most influential brand in China, provide the Natali (China), An Kang Tong and other domestic homecare platforms with professional nursing personnel to meet all the requirements of the patient nursing market both inside and outside the hospital.” Bu Jiangyong mentioned that, relying on these resources, the senior care industry chain could be expanded to include such services as senior housing and professional rehabilitation centres. It should also meet the demand for national supply side reform to address the serious lack of professional nursing personnel.

Bu Jiangyong also said that a strategic partnership between An Kang Tong and the Women’s Federation of Jiangsu Province has been reached. In 2009, this federation built a house service brand called “Hao Su Sao” (good female housekeepers of Jiangsu). There are now about 130 “Hao Su Sao” offline service points located in 13 prefecture cities of Jiangsu Province. The service points will train unemployed and migrant women in housekeeping service and they will then be able to join the service group. After the introduction of a Nursing training system, cooperation with the “Hao Su Sao” training school will be conducted to cultivate professional personnel for housekeeping and senior care in Jiangsu and later for the entire country.