Polyclinic

A polyclinic is a clinic or health care facility that provides both general and specialist examinations and treatments for a wide variety of diseases and injuries to outpatients and is usually independent of a hospital. When a polyclinic is so large that it is in fact a hospital, it is also called a general hospital. A polyclinic is a clinic or health care facility that provides both general and specialist examinations and treatments for a wide variety of diseases and injuries to outpatients and is usually independent of a hospital. When a polyclinic is so large that it is in fact a hospital, it is also called a general hospital. The term was rare in English until recently and is still very rare in North America, but examples include the polyclinics in England (large health care centres able to provide a wider range of services than a standard doctor's (GP) office) and The Polyclinic in Seattle, Washington, USA. Polyclinic has been and is however often used in English to refer to similar, usually large institutions in many other countries that are called 'poliklinik' or similarly in other languages (and whose etymology is different). The term policlinic (spelled similarly to and pronounced the same as polyclinic) is a very rare term in English sometimes used by American medical professionals for the outpatient clinic or outpatient department of European hospitals.