ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the nature of the reforms undergone by French and Italian hospitals over the last 10 or so years. These reforms have gone together with structural and shorter-term developments specific to their respective labour relations systems which are themselves changing. The National Health Service is institutionally organized at three levels: the central or state level; the regional level, with powers of legislation over medical insurance, provided that the principles laid down by the state are respected. The main features of reform from an institutional point of view are the regionalization of systems, the increased autonomy and responsibility of health facilities and the establishment of new agencies responsible for evaluation. From an empirical point of view, the study makes use of two sets of data. The first includes national statistics and information on the French and Italian hospital sectors. The second data set includes chiefly monographs that were drawn up on three establishments in each country and refined.
