In the UK, a small private health care sector has always existed alongside the national health service (NHS). The conventional assumption is that doctors who work as salaried employees of the NHS are guided in their clinical practice by professional values which encourage them to put their...

Over the past twenty years there has been a growing awareness of the scale and cost of adverse events in health care. In this paper we discuss findings from a study, undertaken in 2008, investigating social and cultural influences on incident reporting in maternity care in one UK National Health...

The need to focus on patient safety and improve the quality and consistency of medical care in acute hospital settings has been highlighted in a number of UK and international reports. When patients on a hospital ward become acutely unwell there is often a window of opportunity for staff,...

Explores the implications for continuity of care of the wide range of policy initiatives currently affecting the management and use of human resources in the UK National Health Service. Draws on the findings of a short study undertaken in 2001 comprising a policy document analysis and a series...

Purpose – This paper seeks to describe the exploration of human resource issues in one large‐scale program of innovation in healthcare. It is informed by established theories of management in the workplace and a multi‐level model of diffusion of innovations. Design/methodology/approach –...