The spatial impacts of the processes of internationalisation and commercialisation on the health sector in Britain are considered. It is argued that the key influence on the strategies of multinational corporations in the health sector is state policies regarding the provision of health care and the organisation of support, or ‘ancillary’, services. Multinational involvement in the acute hospital sector and in the provision of ancillary services is discussed, and attempts are made to relate this to wider processes and patterns of uneven development in the United Kingdom. It is argued that, despite the high profile of multinationals, their actual impact is still relatively limited, but in the long term the qualitative effects on the way health care is delivered will be of greater significance.
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