Mr. Brian Higgins:

I thank the Deputy for the question. On the issue of the continuum of care and people who are in the NRH who by right should be at home in the community, we are working on the establishment of the managed clinical rehabilitation networks and the community neurorehabilitation teams to effectively have a three-tier level. There is the acute system and the NRH, where in those cases where there is a spinal cord injury or an acquired brain injury, people receive the care they need in the NRH, entirely appropriately, or, within the new model, closer to home in a regional unit. Then there is level 2 which is where that person can move to a step-down unit that prepares them for their integration back into the community, leading to tier 3, which is a community multidisciplinary rehabilitation team in the community that engages, in a similar way to the local area co-ordination, with existing community initiatives to support them to live at home with the care they need.

We are in a position where four of those teams are ready to be stood up in the early part of this year and there is further funding secured-----