The changing governance of the NHS : reform in a post-Keynesian health service.

Abstract

This article suggests that the central problems of examining governance change in the National Health Service (NHS) are located in the changing relations between the state and the professionals it relies upon for the delivery of health services on the one hand, and its positioning of the users of public services on the other. These relations are explored in depth in terms of the question as to whether market-based governance can be adequately implemented in the NHS, examining the implications of this analysis for welfare governance reform more generally.