Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore whether official inquiries are an effective method for holding the medical profession to account for failings in the quality and safety of care. Design/methodology/approach: Through a review of the theoretical literature on professions and...

Purpose: Attempts to transform health systems have in many countries involved starting to pay healthcare providers through a DRG system, but that has involved managerial workarounds. Managerial workarounds have seldom been analysed. This paper does so by extending and modifying existing...

Purpose: Neo-liberal “reform” has in many countries shifted services across the boundary between the public and private sector. This policy re-opens the question of what structural and managerial differences, if any, differences of ownership make to healthcare providers. The purpose of this...

Purpose: Healthcare systems are under pressure to improve their performance, while at the same time facing severe resource constraints, particularly workforce shortages. By applying resource-dependency-theory (RDT), we explore how healthcare organizations in different settings perceive pressure...

Purpose: This article applies the whistleblowing stages model to whistleblowing journeys as seen in British National Health Service (NHS) Inquiries. Design/methodology/approach: It provides a qualitative analysis of Inquiry...