Examining issues which surround the long-term care available to old people, this is a revised edition of a work entitled Care of the Long Stay Elderly Patient. It considers the general and specific aspects of care, including how to measure quality of life, quality standards, nursing, medical care, ethical issues, the role of the purchaser, the mixed economy in long-term care, patients' rights and choice, community care, and voluntary homes. There is also discussion of the impact of the Community Care Act of 1990, the extensive withdrawal of NHS hospitals from long-stay-care provision, the consequences of an increasingly prominent private sector, the criteria for purchasing long-stay care, and the effect of an ageing population on resources.