Understanding the UK Health Care Consumer: A Study of Management Orientation in UK Health Care

Abstract

The environment for Health Care managers in the UK has recently changed due to governmnet policy demanding more accountability and an increasing customer orientation in this sector. This paper reviews the influences on these managers and goes on to describe research which assess their knowledge and skills regarding their ability to become customer oriented The paper concludes that Health Care managers are not currently have the infrastructure to react to customer needs and wants although they do acknoeledge the need for the application of marketing tecniques and skills in this field Viewed in the context of the former medical emphasis as opposed to performance/management emphasis of UK healthcare, this new environment is radically differernt and is proving a major challenge for managers in this sector.