The Closed Shop and the National Health Service: A Case Study in Public Sector Labour Relations

1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Harrison
Keyword(s):  
National Health Service ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
Health Authority ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Labour Relations

ABSTRACTDuring the second half of the 1970s, the practice of the closed shop became widespread in some parts of the British public sector, but was resisted in others. This paper examines the issue in relation to the National Health Service, where trade unionists made frequent demands for the closed shop and where many managers were apparently not unwilling to concede it. Yet very few closed shops actually resulted. The paper examines the origin and patterns of these demands, health authority policies towards them, and their outcomes in terms both of the operation of the closed shops which were agreed, and the reasons for failure to agree. The conclusion is that although NHS industrial relations had apparently matured very rapidly between 1973 and 1977, the trade unions were neither strong enough nor united enough to enforce the closed shop; nor were industrial relations so far developed as to make the practice a natural next step.

Rawlsian Justice and the Financing of the National Health Service

1976 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudine McCreadie
Keyword(s):  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Level Of Care ◽  
Advisory Panel ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Rawlsian Justice ◽  
Principles Of Justice

ABSTRACTJohn Rawls' ATheory of Justicewas published in Britain in 1972. The summation of many years' work by Professor Rawls, it has stimulated widespread admiration and criticism. In this article Rawls' theory is summarized briefly together with some of the major criticisms that have been made of it. An attempt is then made to apply one of Rawls' principles of justice to the question of health services financing, using as a case study the recommendations of an advisory panel of the British Medical Association, which reported in 1970. These recommendations involved extending the private sector in medical care, on the argument that the flow of resources to the National Health Service would increase and, despite possible greater inequalities, result in an improvement in the level of care for all. Judged by the Rawlsian principle, these recommendations are not found likely to represent a just solution to the question of health service financing.

Strikes by Physicians in Public Hospitals in India

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 460-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUNIL K. PANDYA
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
National Health Service ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
National Health ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Teaching Hospitals ◽  
Tertiary Healthcare ◽  
The Subject

Can strikes by resident doctors training to become consultants in Indian public-sector teaching hospitals be ethical? These hospitals were established for the medical care of the very poor in a country where health insurance and a national health service are nonexistent. In such a situation, the paralysis of tertiary healthcare centers by striking doctors runs contrary to the raison d'être of the profession. It also violates the first dictum of medicine: Primum, non nocere. And although there is some discussion in the Western literature on strikes by doctors, authorities in India are silent on the subject.

scholarly journals Decentralization in the Public Sector

2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 354-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Arrowsmith ◽  
Keith Sisson
Keyword(s):  
National Health Service ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Health Service ◽  
International Development ◽  
National Health ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Environmental Constraints ◽  
Paradigm Case ◽  
The Public

Summary Decentralization has been an important international development in large organizations, including those in the public sector, in recent years. The introduction of self-governing trusts in the U.K. National Health Service in the early 1990s serves as a paradigm case of public sector decentralization, managerialism and marketization. Local managers were able to develop their own employment arrangements in order to improve the recruitment, retention and deployment of labour. This article finds that pay initiatives were subverted by environmental constraints but change proceeded in the organization of working time. The findings have implications beyond the U.K. and health service context, notably the conceptual relevance of the “firm-in-sector” framework and the policy limits and potential of decentralization.

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