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‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry
This is the first of two related articles in the present volume which examine the recent history of health services management using the case of the British National Health Service (NHS). In the historiography of the NHS the 1980s is widely seen as a watershed, when public policy first sought to int...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2013
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3566753/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23393404 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2012.82 |
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author | GORSKY, MARTIN |
author_facet | GORSKY, MARTIN |
author_sort | GORSKY, MARTIN |
collection | PubMed |
description | This is the first of two related articles in the present volume which examine the recent history of health services management using the case of the British National Health Service (NHS). In the historiography of the NHS the 1980s is widely seen as a watershed, when public policy first sought to introduce market disciplines into its operation. Administrative and managerial reforms were central to this process, and their origins and impact have been the subject of continuing debate. This article examines and evaluates one of the key events in this history, the Griffiths NHS Inquiry of 1983, which put in place the principles of ‘general management’ in the NHS. Drawing on both documentary records and oral evidence it offers fresh perspectives on the reasons why the Conservative government embarked on this reform, on the workings of the inquiry team under the leadership of the businessman Roy Griffiths, and on the uneven course of the implementation of his recommendations. While its initial impact arguably did not meet the expectations of its supporters, it is suggested that several of Griffiths’ key concerns have grown, not diminished, in importance as aspects of subsequent health politics. These include: the need for clinician involvement in NHS management and financing; the conundrum of how to depoliticise the central direction of the service while retaining political accountability; the desirability of measuring and improving performance; and the question of how best to incorporate the wishes of patients and public in the decision-making arena. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3566753 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Cambridge University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-35667532013-02-07 ‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry GORSKY, MARTIN Med Hist Articles This is the first of two related articles in the present volume which examine the recent history of health services management using the case of the British National Health Service (NHS). In the historiography of the NHS the 1980s is widely seen as a watershed, when public policy first sought to introduce market disciplines into its operation. Administrative and managerial reforms were central to this process, and their origins and impact have been the subject of continuing debate. This article examines and evaluates one of the key events in this history, the Griffiths NHS Inquiry of 1983, which put in place the principles of ‘general management’ in the NHS. Drawing on both documentary records and oral evidence it offers fresh perspectives on the reasons why the Conservative government embarked on this reform, on the workings of the inquiry team under the leadership of the businessman Roy Griffiths, and on the uneven course of the implementation of his recommendations. While its initial impact arguably did not meet the expectations of its supporters, it is suggested that several of Griffiths’ key concerns have grown, not diminished, in importance as aspects of subsequent health politics. These include: the need for clinician involvement in NHS management and financing; the conundrum of how to depoliticise the central direction of the service while retaining political accountability; the desirability of measuring and improving performance; and the question of how best to incorporate the wishes of patients and public in the decision-making arena. Cambridge University Press 2013-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3566753/ /pubmed/23393404 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2012.82 Text en Published by Cambridge University Press |
spellingShingle | Articles GORSKY, MARTIN ‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry |
title | ‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry |
title_full | ‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry |
title_fullStr | ‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry |
title_full_unstemmed | ‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry |
title_short | ‘Searching for the People in Charge’: Appraising the 1983 Griffiths NHS Management Inquiry |
title_sort | ‘searching for the people in charge’: appraising the 1983 griffiths nhs management inquiry |
topic | Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3566753/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23393404 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2012.82 |
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