comparison between a Canadian and a British teaching hospital

SUMMARY The productivity of a clinical chemistry laboratory was measured in both a Canadian and a British tertiary care teaching hospital using 1977 data and the 1976 edition of the Canadian Schedule of Unit Values. Although productivity, measured as units produced per person or per paid hour, was lower in the British than in the Canadian teaching hospital-due to the British day-release system of staff-education-the output per actual worked hour was similar. We conclude, from this small study, that productivity in the laboratory services of the British National Health Service is not likely to be different from laboratory productivity elsewhere. As part of a study of clinical chemistry utilisation in teaching hospitals in Canada and Britain, ' based on data collected in 1977, we have examined the pro-ductivity of one Canadian and one British clinical chemistry laboratory. For a number of years Britain has earned an in-ternational reputation for poor industrial produc-tivity, and this, together with the stigma of 'social