Autonomy and modernisation: the management of change in an English primary care trust

Recent New Labour policy for the ‘modernisation’ of Government places a good deal of emphasis on decentralisation. This emphasis is particularly marked in relation to the organisation of primary care. However, like hospitals and other National Health Service institutions, primary care trusts (PCTs) are subject to a substantial raft of centrally established performance targets and indicators, including those which contribute to the public award of between zero and three performance ‘stars’. This raises questions about the extent to which employees can exercise autonomy in the context of rigid top‐down directives. This paper presents findings from a study using participant observation and interviews to examine the impact of a training course aimed ostensibly at increasing employee autonomy in an English PCT. The suggestion is that attempts to make employees more autonomous can be seen as a strategy for increasing central control based upon the internalisation by the employees of centrally promulgated values. The attraction of such strategies is that they may be potentially more effective and less costly than alternative strategies of direct control. However, the study suggests that the outcome of attempts by such methods as programmes to increase employee autonomy may be very different from those intended.     

市场机制下政府调节与医疗管制制度框架的构建

医疗机构分类管理的政策确定了我国医疗服务的市场取向.我国医疗市场服务因其特殊的技术经济特点也存在一般意义上的市场失灵,使政府管制这一非市场治理机制的产生与存在成为必要,以弥补与矫正市场缺陷,保证医疗服务市场的规范运行和卫生改革的顺利推进.