ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews changes in NHS management styles during the 1980s and considers contemporary approaches to the management of the service.
THIS CHAPTER COMPLEMENTS CHAPTER 10, which pro-vided a recent history of the NHS. The intention in the present chapter is to focus specifically on the issue of management and outline the major changes in NHS management which have occurred in the 1980s. These will be discussed in relation to perceived improvements in management, control of the NHS from the centre and the impact on professional groups, including nursing. Before embarking on this discussion, the chapter will describe briefly the management process
leading up to the watershed of the Griffiths Management Inquiry (1983). Griffiths’ main recommendations will be discussed, as will the emerging impact of the NHS and Community Care Act, 1990.
