The frontier of control: doctors and managers in the NHS 1966 to 1997

Abstract

Summarises the impact of challenges of reorganization faced by the UK medical profession over a 30‐year period up to the arrival in government of New Labour in 1997 in order to provide a historical context for the appearance of clinical governance. Investigates the NHS manager as a “diplomat”, the era of “general management” and the National Health Service quasi‐market. States that: managerial supremacy has increased over a long period; managerial control over medicine seemed uncertain in 1997; and a good deal of secular change has arisen from government imposing macro‐level reorganization. Concludes that it remains to be seen whether these elements are capable of allowing the development of local clinical governance arrangements that carry the support of the medical profession.

Citation

Harrison, S. and Lim, J.N.W. (2003), "The frontier of control: doctors and managers in the NHS 1966 to 1997", Clinical Governance: An International Journal, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 13-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777270310459922