A friend of mine recently joined a corporate hospital as a junior consultant. One of his jobs, he found, was to go along with other junior consultants and the marketing manager of the hospital to visit general practitioners. The doctors would speak about the facilities available at the hospital and request the GP to refer patients. The marketing manager would then talk about the "relationship" that could be built between the hospital and the GP. Bluntly put, the GP was being offered a kickback to send patients. It appears, therefore, that private hospitals are short of patients and are chasing them through fair means and foul.