Our study showed that of the 300 consecutive people interviewed at the General Hospital at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, most persons (80%) preferred to be called 'patients' as opposed to 7% choosing the term 'client' and 6% opting for the term 'customer'. This proves our hypothesis that in the developing world people prefer to maintain the doctor-patient relationship and leave the word 'client' and 'customer' for the businessman.