Health service structures, management and professional practice: beyond clinical management

At the heart of the operation of the health system is the relationship between managers and the various professionals who provide clinical services. While there is an inherent conflict between these two groups, this conflict has been avoided in the past by the managers playing a supporting rather than a controlling role. However, the current demands of cost-control are placing managers and professionals into direct conflict; a situation that many organisations are addressing by putting clinicians into management roles. This measure has had initial success in some situations, but it is argued that this success will be limited because clinical departments are not able to address many of the broader issues that affect the performance of health services. This paper proposes an alternative approach that will enable these broader issues to be effectively addressed, and also reduce the structural conflict.