ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the significant changes to the trinity of tools used for health professional regulation that have occurred over the last 25 years. Government-sanctioned self-regulation attracted a number of criticisms about its operation and function. In New Zealand and Australia, independent health complaints agencies were established to receive complaints about health services from the public. Prior to its enactment, the European Commission on Human Rights had expressed concern about fair processes and procedures in health professional regulatory bodies, especially the General Medical Council (GMC). The roots of the regulatory trinity pre-date modern health systems and indeed also pre-date modern regulatory systems. Modern health systems were generally formed on the basis of governments reaching accommodations with the medical profession. Recent research into patient safety has illustrated that healthcare carries inherent risks of iatrogenic harms. In some jurisdictions the New Public Management (NPM) has profoundly affected conceptions of how health systems and services should be regulated.
