Commentary. Developing public health service management in Europe

Abstract

his short article is intended to contribute to the current debate about public health education and research in particular in health management. My three points are: • European countries cannot deal with the challenges facing the health sector unless they develop health management; • recent health reforms have not had the impact that was hoped, in part because of weakness in management; and • schools of public health have an important contribution to make to developing health management, but are not responding to the challenge as well as they could. I was invited to put my views in a short article to stimulate discussion about the role of management education and research in schools of public health in Europe. My views arise from my work in a university management development unit for the British NHS since 1980, and, more recently my three years working in a management programme at the Nordic School of Public Health in Sweden which brought me into closer contact with other schools of public health in Europe. Questions which I think European schools of public health need to ask are: what priority should such schools give to management? Are there good reasons to develop management education in schools of public health, given the many other subjects which compete for the time of faculty and students, and the many other institutions which are entering this market? Where is the research into public health management and should schools be doing it?