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Healthcare Marketisation in Spain: The Case of Madrid’s Hospitals

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Evaluating Reforms of Local Public and Social Services in Europe

Part of the book series: Governance and Public Management ((GPM))

Abstract

The introduction of market-driven mechanisms has been considered as a key means of improving healthcare management. Based on public choice and property rights theories, advocates of marketisation suggest that the performance of health services may improve by exposing previously protected in-house activities to a new environment characterized by market discipline and competition. Marketisation opponents, in contrast, suggest that performance, in particular service quality, may be compromised by the profit imperative. In this chapter, we assess the consequences for efficiency and service quality of introducing market-driven mechanisms in Madrid, one of the most enthusiastic adopters of marketisation policies in health care in Spain. Our findings do not support the view that introducing market-driven mechanisms into healthcare has led to efficiency gains and quality improvements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, University of Cantabria, Cantabria, Spain

    José M. Alonso, Judith Clifton & Daniel Díaz-Fuentes

Authors
  1. José M. Alonso
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  2. Judith Clifton
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  3. Daniel Díaz-Fuentes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José M. Alonso .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Administrative Science and Local Government, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Ivan Koprić

  2. Institute for Social Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Hellmut Wollmann

  3. GRALE (Groupement de Recherche sur l’Administration Locale en Europe), University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Gérard Marcou

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Alonso, J.M., Clifton, J., Díaz-Fuentes, D. (2018). Healthcare Marketisation in Spain: The Case of Madrid’s Hospitals. In: Koprić, I., Wollmann, H., Marcou, G. (eds) Evaluating Reforms of Local Public and Social Services in Europe. Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61091-7_6

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