Mr. Tom Maher:

A statement was made to the effect that we know how to commission a bed. It would be inadvisable to go down the route of simply concentrating on beds, especially where mental health is concerned. It is a simple and easy approach to take. We have moved the clinical model within mental health care in the past 20 years from what was a bed-based or inpatient approach across to what we have now, whereby most of the services we provide are either in day services or in the community.

The committee's role in developing a strategy over the next ten years should include a way in which we can develop a funding model, particularly for mental health care, but I imagine it applies across the entire spectrum of health, whereby we fund care and treatment rather than the commissioning of beds. As I said, the latter is a very simple trap into which to fall because of the very simple per diemrate. We have worked with the insurers to try to get to a stage at which we have a proper funding model that matches the clinical model, that is, care across the entire continuum from one's home to the most acute inpatient facility. The continuum would range across the entire facility and the entire spectrum. This is difficult but it can be done.