RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Doctors, managers and politicians
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP 465
OP 469
DO 10.7861/clinmedicine.3-5-465
VO 3
IS 5
A1 Graham Winyard
YR 2003
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/3/5/465.abstract
AB Doctors and politicians have rarely seen eye to eye on what a health service should provide and how it should be managed. The introduction of general management in 1984, while initially successful, created new fault-lines between doctors, managers and politicians that were compounded by a succession of NHS reorganisations. These changes brought politics too close to front-line management, highlighted the incompatibility of managerially determined targets with the essence of professional practice, and have led to the development of a management agenda disconnected from healthcare. Remedies are suggested here that reflect the particular roles and contributions of each group that could restore a sense of shared purpose in the running of the NHS.