Urgent admissions to a large general hospital.

In the Soviet Union, as in many other countries, the treatment of inpatients claims the lion's share of health service expenditure. However, analysis of the activity of Soviet hospitals remains at a rudimentary level in certain major respects, one explanation for which is likely to be the comparatively low figures for cost per case and cost per bed-day. Given that little attention is devoted to seeking information and to critical scrutiny in this area, special interest attaches to the findings of a survey recently carried out at one of the Union's largest general hospitals.'