Over the past two or three years, a rapid increase in the number of emergency medical admissions to acute hospitals has been widely reported and a number of studies in different parts of the country have been carried out aimed at explaining why these increases have occurred. In early 1995, ...
The paper summarises recent literature giving an economic perspective on acute hospitals. The issues discussed include: the optimal size of a hospital; the role of the hospital in relation to other suppliers; cost containment and productivity; and the scope for cost reduction.