In this policy brief, we will take a fresh look at the hospital, and examine the questions that policy-makers need to be asking about its role in the health care system. Although most health care takes places outside hospitals, for most people, they have come to symbolize the health care system. The capacity of a health care system is often measured by the number of hospitals or hospital beds. Yet these measures tell us almost nothing. A “hospital” may have only a handful of beds, a staff with only basic skills and no infrastructure – even no electricity or running water in some parts of the former Soviet Union. Or it may have hundreds of beds, a highly trained staff and sophisticated equipment, operating theatres and laboratories.