ABSTRACT
Health services in France are a mixture of public hospitals and private hospitals, some of which are profit-making. Detailed information is available in some of the publications listed in the bibliography. In a short visit to France in March 1978,1 interviewed staff of the Assistance Publique, UGAP, the National Centre for Hospital Equipment, a trade association and a major regional hospital. Health services in France are a mixture of public hospitals and private hospitals, some of which are profit-making. France operates a complicated system of reimbursement for patients who have to pay their own medical bills and then claim them back from health insurance organisations. The National Equipment Centre staff is now over fifty, which enables it to react efficiently to inquiries from interested hospital organisations on French hospital equipment. The health care supplies system in France differs in a number of ways from both the British and German, but common needs lead to many similarities.
