ORCID
- Rod Sheaff: 0000-0002-7984-2627
Abstract
Rationale: Few accounts of healthcare corporatisation examine the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. New Politics of the Welfare State (NPWS) theories recognise the relevance of crises but give more attention to programmatic than systemic (structural) retrenchment, and little to healthcare corporatisation. Objective: To examine what changes the 2008 financial crisis produced in the pattern of healthcare corporatisation, and the implications for NPWS theories. Methods: Using administrative data from the English NHS during 1995–2019 we formulated a multi-dimensional index of corporatisation, tested its validity, and used it to analyse longitudinally how the financial crisis affected the balance between the responsibilization of management and re-commodification (introduction of market-like practices) in provider corporatisation. Results: The financial crisis influenced NHS corporatisation through the fiscal austerity with which governments responded. The re-commodification of NHS providers stalled but not the responsibilization of NHS managers. Conclusions: The corporatisation of NHS providers faltered after the financial crisis. These findings corroborate parts of NPWS theory but also reveal scope for further elaborating its accounts of systemic retrenchment in health systems.
DOI
10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116505
Publication Date
2024-01-01
Publication Title
Social Science and Medicine
Volume
342
ISSN
0277-9536
Keywords
Austerity, Commodification, Corporatisation, Financial crisis, Fiscal, New politics of the welfare state, NHS, Responsibilization
Recommended Citation
Sheaff, R., Allen, P., Exworthy, M., & Mannion, R. (2024) 'The policy and politics of healthcare corporatisation: The case of the English NHS', Social Science and Medicine, 342. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116505
