Clinical governance and governmentality

Flynn, R

Abstract

The introduction of Clinical Governance into the National Health Service in England represents a fundamental shift in the regulatory relationship between the state and medical professionals. This paper critically examines the underlying assumptions of Clinical Governance, and discusses them in relation to Foucauldian concepts of 'governmentality'. First, official definitions of Clinical Governance are reviewed in the context of other policies to apply increased control and surveillance to medical professionals and linkages between this and wider tends in public sector managerialism and governance. The paper then briefly considers these developments in relation to theoretical accounts of bureaucracy, professionalism, risk and trust. It is argued that at the organisational level, Clinical Governance can be usefully analysed as involving a move towards 'encoded knowledge' through the use of 'soft bureaucracy'.

Citation

Flynn, R. (2002). Clinical governance and governmentality. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698570220137042

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2002
• Deposit Date: Jan 12, 2009
• Journal: Health Risk & Society
• Print ISSN: 13698575
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 155-173
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13698570220137042
• Keywords: Behavioral medicine, health geography, medical sociology, public health - medical sociology, risk, clinical governance, encoded knowledge, governmentality, soft bureaucracy
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13698570220137042