However, due to the rapid aging of the population – there are now 220,000 people over 85, in ten years there will be almost 300,000 and 350,000 by 2040 – additional measures are needed. According to the umbrella organization, the nursing home beds could no longer be used by elderly people who are still independent enough. Zorgnet-Icuro wants to gradually exclude the elderly people who require least care, the so-called O and A profiles, from residential care centers. Today they still make up 15 percent of nursing home residents. “These people can be cared for through other forms of elderly care, such as home and family care,” says Cloet.