For serious problems the state hospital was the best equipped, with similar facilities to good British hospitals, but private hospitals were more comfortable.

Ambulances: Spain has a mixture of public, private, and Red Cross ambu!ances. Facilities in private ambulances vary; Ambulancias Insulares, one of the largest private services in Majorca, was good, but the other service we inspected was less impressive. Our inspector found varying guidelines on response times, training ambulance staff equipping ambulances; the ambulance service in Majorca lacks a central co-ordinating control.

Hospitals: Large Spanish state hospitals like Son Dureta in Majorca are generally well-equipped, though may lack comfort and privacy. Healthcare in Spanish resorts relies heavily on private hospitals, which may be contracted to back up the state system, or totally private. Many offer .24- hour emergency services, but our expert concluded that in Majorca they often had too few staff on call to offer a proper service of this kind. In addition, many of the private hospitals in Majorca seen by our inspector had inadequate resuscitation equipment in the casualty department: transfer to another department could mean a critical delay.