[From the analysis of the inadequacies of a 200-bed zonal hospital to an alternative proposal of a single general hospital to be used by the whole territory].

: The adequacy of the hospital to meet patients' needs was analysed on the basis of patients admitted to the Medicine Division over a 6 month period. Critical discussion of the numerous deficiencies encountered shows: 1) that the small zonal hospital of 200 beds is inadequate to perform the tasks and function of modern medicine; 2) that, more generally, the hierarchical distinction still ruling in regional, provincial and zonal hospitals is anachronistic. The proposal for a single General Hospital for acute patients (available for the whole territory) is put forward and the relations of this new unit with out-patient structures are defined.