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Reforming financial controls in the NHS — or is the NHS a ‘deviant’ organization?

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Perspectives on Financial Control

Abstract

Since the mid-1970s, the NHS has been subject to a series of financial management initiatives. As explored further below, these are comprehensive in nature, including recommendations on systems of budgetary control, capital investment decisions and reforms of capital accounting. These initiatives stem from central government exerting influence in its pivotal role as the provider of funds with overall statutory responsibility for the delivery of NHS health care. As noted below, certain facets of the above aspects of financial control have been developed by others interested in the NHS, but these non-governmental developments have tended to be sporadic and fragmentary. This is quite distinct from central government intervention in NHS financial controls, in which these initiatives are seen as national policies or the precursors to the development of national policies (as in the case, for example, of trial sites for management budgeting).

The author gratefully acknowledges helpful comments from Sue Llewellyn, Falconer Mitchell and Robin Roslender.

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Authors
  1. Irvine Lapsley
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Science and Technology, University of Manchester, UK

    Mahmoud Ezzamel (Manchester School of Management) (Manchester School of Management)

  2. Department of Economics, University of Southampton, UK

    David Heathfield

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Lapsley, I. (1992). Reforming financial controls in the NHS — or is the NHS a ‘deviant’ organization?. In: Ezzamel, M., Heathfield, D. (eds) Perspectives on Financial Control. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3053-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3053-8_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-40980-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-3053-8

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