Mr. Pat Healy:

We set it out in table 5 at paragraph 3.6. The average at this stage is three years and it is going down. Under the older subvention scheme there were contracted beds, as they were called. One can clearly see that we still have people in the system who are contracted. Some of them have highly complex needs but they are living a lot longer.

The new scheme, which came in in 2009, includes a care needs assessment and a financial assessment. When one does the care needs assessment, one also has a local placement forum which would generally have a geriatrician and a multidisciplinary team. That is a good protector or oversight to ensure that only those who require it will go into long-stay care. The figures bear out the fact that the number of years for which people are staying in long-stay care is reducing. That means that they are older and closer to end-of-life care as they go into nursing homes.