ABSTRACT
In the past decade or so, the consumption, or use, of health and social services by the elderly has rightly claimed particular attention. Interest has been stimulated not only by a growing awareness of the implications for society and its resources of increases in both the proportion and actual numbers of old people but also by more widespread concern with questions of the efficiency and effectiveness of social provisions. The result has been a spate of quantitative and qualitative investigations most of which have highlighted deficiencies in services on both counts.
