It is acknowledged that there is insufficient provision of public long-term care beds to cater for our growing elderly population, with a resultant over-reliance on the private nursing home sector. The Eastern Regional Health Authority and the Southern Health Board areas are particularly affected because of a lack of public long-term care beds. This was acknowledged when my Department was preparing the national health strategy, which contains a commitment to provide 1,370 additional assessment and rehabilitation beds and 600 extra day hospital beds, with facilities encompassing specialist areas such as fracture prevention, Parkinson's Disease, stroke prevention, heart failure and continence promotion clinics. The strategy also proposed the provision of an extra 800 extended care/community nursing unit places per year over a seven year period that will include the provision of long-term care beds for people with dementia.