Provincial governments have been re-examining their delivery of services, such as health care. The accompanying table is based on one random sample of hospitals in New Brunswick and another in Nova Scotia, and shows the total number of beds in each hospital (Guide to Canadian Healthcare Facilities, 1998-99, Vol. 6, Canadian Healthcare Association, Ottawa). At the 0.05 significance level, test the claim that the two given samples come from populations with the same mean (assume unequal variances). If the means are different, what are the possible implications for the equity of services between these two provinces? If the means are different, do we have sufficient information to conclude that the numbers of hospital beds per person are different in the two provinces? Explain.
