“Getting into Hospitals in a Big Way”: The Corporate Transformation of Hospital Care in Australia

Abstract

In many countries the provision of hospital services has changed from a cottage industry with many small operators to an industry in which large corporate chains are now starting to predominate. Transnational corporations have increasingly invested in the provision of hospital services when traditional areas of investment have become no longer attractive. Although corporate involvement in the provision of hospital services has become an issue of considerable significance in recent years, geographers have paid little attention to such trends. Within Australia, changes in access to capital and shifts in investment, the role of the state regulatory environment, and, to a lesser extent, the emer..