Using a variety of evidence the author documents the rise of general management, the application of new techniques to reduce medical costs and improve efficiency, and other methods to control use and evaluate clinical performance.

Rob Flynn is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Salford.

Chapter 1 Restructuring health services; Chapter 2 Ritual and liminality; Chapter 3 Administration or management?; Chapter 4 Budgeting and the costs of medical autonomy; Chapter 5 Assuring performance, quality and standards; Chapter 6 Cutback management; Chapter 7 Marketisation and management in the National Health Service; Chapter 8 Structures of control in health management;