I talk to private healthcare dealmaker extraordinaire, Dominic Hollamby at Rothschild.

He thinks there is little chance of a quick recovery in private equity markets: "Most private healthcare deals were done on multiples of 8-10 times - now all you can get is, maybe, three times on smaller deals. That is a big drop."

This means, he says, that good assets are simply unavailable at the moment.

Yes, you can buy a Turkish hospital chain, but, frankly, who would want to? "They have a lot of debt, foreign currency issues and the government is holding down prices," he explains. 

I suggest that the bounce-back is still 6 to 12 months away, and he replies, gloomily: "Yes, or it could be a lot longer. The banks have to repair their balance sheets first."