Decentralized Locality Management in Community Health Services

The aim of a decentralized approach is to provide com-munity health services that are efficient, effective and responsive to local health needs. The 1980s have wit-nessed a myriad of national influences which have led community health services to examine the relevance of decentralization- or local management- to meet the challenges facing the NHS. The national influences are: * criticism of bureaucracy in the NHS. Smaller decen-tralized management areas would be able to be more responsive to the local market place; * the drive to contain costs within the NHS; * the acceptance by all political parties of the need for innovation and responsiveness at local level; * the publication of the Griffiths Report in 1984 em-phasizing the need for health services responsive t