Intellectual Mercenaries and the Public Interest: Management consultancies and the NHS

In: Policy & politics, Band 27, Heft 4, S. 447-465

Abstract

English
Throughout the 1990s developments in the NHS have been largely driven by the efforts of hospital trusts and health authorities to find ways of surviving in the face of constant financial shortfalls. Because NHS regional offices no longer provide them with planning expertise, they rely instead on private sector management consultants. This article describes the NHS market for advice and the predominantly market-orientated attitudes that many management consultants bring to their NHS work, and analyses the problem presented by the fact that their main clients, the trusts, are not responsible for the public interest. A significant function of management consultancies appears to have been to provide legitimation for a largely unacknowledged Treasury-inspired drive to 'downsize' the acute care sector.