The hospital : a prognosis.

The programme examines the future of the hospital and its changing role in the treatment of public health. Advances in medicine should mean that the need for the in-treatment of patients should be greatly reduced. A report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research, called "Agenda for Health", says that the health service in the 21st century will be based on units linked in a community network. Professor Roy Porter of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, talks about the history of the hospital and explains that they are not an integral part of a medical system, but were started by the Romans for their soldiers (wounded in battle) and slaves (needed for working on plantations).