Contracting in the National Health Service (NHS): recognizing the need for co-operation.

Within the reorganized National Health Service hierarchical relationships between Health Authorities and Trusts have been replaced by functional differentiation. However, differentiation of function cannot be seen as an end in itself and management of the relationship between purchasers and providers must include managing the differentiation as well as the function. This paper suggests that collaborative and administrative activities have a distinct role to play in health service management.

Collaboration through project management.

This paper focuses on project management and examines its value for nurse managers. The paper explores the implementation of project management and its contribution to the collaboration between two Trusts in West Suffolk, UK. It argues that project management could serve the interest of nurse managers within the changing culture of the health service.