This Government is committed to ensuring that elderly people receive the highest quality of health care available. The objectives of health policy, towards the elderly are set out in the report —The Years Ahead — A Policy for the Elderly. They are the support and care of dependent elderly people at home for as long as possible and to ensure that when the elderly can no longer be cared for at home, that there are appropriate specialist and extended care facilities to meet their needs. The priorities for service development at present are to strengthen Community Care Services for elderly persons and their carers in the home, to provide more specialist facilities in acute hospitals, to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of elderly mentally infirm, and to implement the Health (Nursing Homes) Act, 1990.
Considerable progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations contained in The Years Ahead. In recent years an additional £9 million was made available to the health boards to expand home nursing and the home help services, to provide more respite places, day care centres and day hospitals, to provide more departments of medicine for the elderly in general hospitals, to strengthen rehabilitation services and to develop services for those with dementia.