We analysed the characteristics of patients aged 75 and over admitted to the geriatric and general medical wards over a three month period in a teaching hospital. Patients admitted to the geriatric wards were slightly older, were more often female, more likely to be admitted during the day and during a week day, more likely to have been seen by their own general practitioner, had more chronic and multiple illness with non-specific presentations, and stayed longer in hospital. Referring doctors seem to discriminate between patients needing geriatric care and those more suitable for general medical care, but there is an overlap in the characteristics of the two groups.