The fact that old people spend longer periods in hospital means that the through put and the bed-turn over are held back. The average length of hospital stay for an old-elderly per son is 11.3 days whereas for the nation as a whole it is 4.9. Barr reports that the over-65s in Singapore are admitted 2.8 times as often as patients aged 15-64, and stay 1.66 times as long. In 1998 the over-65s (then 7% of the population) accounted for 19% of resident patients seen at poly clinics, 19% of resident patients discharged from hospital and 32% of Singapore hospital-days. They were 99% of admissions into long-stay institutions. The median public hospital admission rate in 2003 was 66.2 per 1000 males, 62 per 1000 females. For the over-65s it was 262.8 and 229.8 respectively. In 1995 the over-65s accounted for 20% of admissions into public-sector hospitals. By 2030 this is likely to be 43%