ABSTRACT
For anyone with experience of medical care almost exclusively derived from treatment in the NHS, it can be difficult to picture private hospitals as doing anything other than providing the same services in better surroundings. Yet it is probable that such a perception is to misdescribe what private hospitals do. The description by Harry, a member of the catering department, of the private hospital where he worked as ‘a good class hotel giving medical care’ is closer to the image that those working within perceive: a business which specializes in a particular field, that of medical care.
