facilities for mentally handicapped people who need residential care. As well as alternative longer-term residential care, overall alternative provision must cater for the large number of people receiving respite care, assessments and so on.

The information given in the table is of closures planned up to 1995. Column (i) lists hospitals where public consultation has been completed and closure has been agreed, with the target date by which the health authorities aim to have arranged suitable placements for all residents so that the hospital may then close. Column (ii) lists hospitals where replacement facilities are being planned with a view to health authorities being in a position to be able to close during the year shown, subject to the results of consultation. A final closure date will depend on many factors, including the availability of suitable alternative services.

The table gives numbers of residents (short-term and long-term) on 31 December 1985 (the latest available figures), rather than numbers of residents to be discharged. We would expect admissions as well as discharges to be made to many of these hospitals for some time to come.