Management skills in the new NHS

Abstract

In 1983 a small committee of inquiry headed by Sir Roy Griffiths was set up to advise on management of the NHS. The committee comprised people with a considerable amount of business experience and found the lack of leadership in the organisation remarkable. This was particularly true at Regional and District level where consensus management held sway, so much so that any professional officer in the management team had the right of veto. When inquiry members suggested to those they interviewed that management principles from the business world might be applicable to the NHS the response was unfavourable. It was held that the Health Service, unlike business, was not founded on the profit motive. However, Griffiths pointed out that the latter is not a significant factor in industry below board level and that levels of service, quality, meeting budgets, cost improvements, staff motivation and research and development were much more important. All these were also essential for efficient and effective management in the NHS.

If Florence Nightingale were carrying her lamp through the corridors of the NHS today she would almost certainly be searching for the people in charge.

Griffiths 1983