ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews health care personnel in health and health care management. The chapter examines the state’s increased influence over how professionals practise and use resources. It describes the rise of managerialism within the health care sector. The chapter explores the role of doctors in management is assessed in the light of two contrasting models of management. It discusses that future developments are assessed especially given the Labour government’s intended abolition of the internal market in health care. While the medical profession may possess the potential to exercise considerable influence over how resources are used at a micro level, constraints restrict their autonomy. The concerns of the medical profession can, with some justification, be dismissed as naked protectionism but they are understandable and not entirely without foundation. Developments in quality, audit and monitoring together constitute ‘a significant incursion into the medical domain. Clinical effectiveness has yet to make significant inroads into medical practice.
