© 1995 Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom
research-article |
Market testing specialist health promotion services – a test case for an imaginative public health presence in purchasing
Sandy Whitelaw, Lecturer in Health Promotion
Kevin McKeown, Lecturer in Health PromotionPromotion (and Manager, East Lancashire Public Health Resource and Intelligence Centre)
Felicity Green, Lecturer in Health PromotionPromotion (and Deputy Director of Health Promotion, Stockport Centre for Health Promotion)
School of Epidemiology and Health Sciences, Medical School, University of Manchester Manchester M13 9PT
Address correspondence to Mr. S. Whitelaw
This paper focuses on the current pressure being imposed upon health promotion services in the ‘North West’ Region in the form of ‘market testing’. It suggests that this is not only of concern to those services themselves, but may also act as a ‘test case’ for the examination of the range of competing perspectives that inform a purchasing function. The tensions between the views that respectively support or question the application of market values is thus examined in relation to the role of public health specialists within purchasing organizations. The paper concludes that although there is some potential to ‘sharpen up’ services, caution is required in avoiding unrestricted market values leading to superficial and fragmented health promotion provision. It is admitted that there are consequences relating to health promotion specialists. However, because of the close affinity between health promotion and public health, failure to protect health promotion from the harshness of the market and ensure a broad-based approach will not only be a set-back for hearth promotion but will also harm the status of ‘public health perspectives’ in the broader purchasing context.