ABSTRACT
A system of private non-profit hospitals also tends to result in the bulk of them being small, even when the population is sufficient to justify one or more large hospital. Hospitals which are built according to the initiatives of community groups, religious groups or the caprices of individual doctors are unlikely to result in a rational plan. Non-profit hospitals, like profit hospitals, are engaged in the competition for patients, unless they are already over-loaded with demand. The hospitals are typically allowed to recover the construction cost by an annual amortisation charge included in the recurrent cost and paid for by compulsory health insurance once it is built. Acute hospitals are not small in the United Kingdom because it is believed that larger hospitals produce greater quality of care and economical use can be made of expensive skills and equipment. In some countries specialised hospitals have been developed for particular categories of patients.
