Drug therapy for 115 patients in Health Board contracted beds in a long-stay institution for the elderly were studied. The results were analysed for frequency, type and cost of medicines. 96.5% of patients received a total of 473 routine medicines, an average of 4.1 medicines per patient, females received a higher number of medicines than males. The average cost per person per day was 67.6p for all medicines. The most frequently prescribed medicines were for therapeutic groups CNS (32.3%) CVS (17.8%) and GIS (14.2%).