What is the difference between hospital and infirmary?

The principal difference is in the medical services that are available. Hospitals have staff and departments that specialize in treating complex and often life-threatening medical conditions, and have teams of doctors who are able to perform surgery where necessary and indicated.

Infirmaries generally do not have these capabilities, and are designed more to provide examinations, medications and brief convalescence to persons who become ill or who are injured and need attention, but whose conditions are not life-threatening or do not require the level of medical specialization available in a hospital.