title: Health professionals' views of contracting for infection control in the NHS internal market.
abstract: This paper reports a national study which investigated the involvement of infection control professionals in (and their views about) the formal processes of contracting for health care in the NHS internal market. Health care professionals needed to be involved contracting, if it was to be effective. The study found that many infection control professionals were not, in fact, involved in contracting, while the importance of both contracts and informal professional networks were recognised But respondents did not think that their professional networks entirely compensated for their lack of involvement in contracting. As formal agreements continue to be central to achieving quality of care in the post-internal market NHS, infection control professionals need to be involved in specification and implementation of these arrangements.
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Centre for the Economics of Infectious Disease, Health Services Research Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Bronwyn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Croxson
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Crawshaw
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Archibald
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003284:Contract Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016357:Infection Control Practitioners / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom