IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acbsfi/v13y2003i2p99-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From voluntary to state control and the emergence of the department in UK hospital accounting

Author

Listed:
  • Neil Robson

Abstract

This paper explores the development and diffusion of accounting techniques in UK hospitals and finds that attempts to utilise accounting data, for performance measurement and control, predate the introduction of the NHS in 1948. The main focus of the paper is the move from the uniform system of accounts, first introduced in 1893, to departmental accounting information in 1956. After identifying the antecedent accounting conditions the paper explores both why and how change occurred by analysing the roles of dominant individuals, institutions, political and economic forces that led to the introduction of departmental accounting. The process of change, after the nationalisation of the hospitals in 1948, had a significant impact on the accounting technology adopted: with departmental budgeting being dropped. Finally, the role of the medical profession in the departmentalisation debate is explored and possible explanations for the reluctance to adopt new management accounting techniques are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil Robson, 2003. "From voluntary to state control and the emergence of the department in UK hospital accounting," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 99-123.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:13:y:2003:i:2:p:99-123
    DOI: 10.1080/095852000084969
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/095852000084969
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/095852000084969?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1987. "Accounting and the construction of the governable person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 235-265, April.
    2. Preston, Alistair M., 1992. "The birth of clinical accounting: A study of the emergence and transformations of discourses on costs and practices of accounting in U.S. hospitals," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 63-100, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gebreiter, Florian, 2016. "“Comparing the incomparable”: Hospital costing and the art of medicine in post-war Britain," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 257-268.
    2. Florian Gebreiter & William J Jackson, 2015. "Fertile ground: the history of accounting in hospitals," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 177-182, September.
    3. William J. Jackson & Audrey S. Jackson & Chris Pong & Simona Scarparo, 2010. "Doctors, Accountants and Accounting before the formation of the UK National Health Service," Accountancy Discussion Papers 1006, Accountancy Research Group, Heriot Watt University.
    4. Andy Holden & Warwick Funnell & David Oldroyd, 2009. "Accounting and the moral economy of illness in Victorian England: the Newcastle Infirmary," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(4), pages 525-552, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Vagnoni, Emidia, 2004. "Power, organization design and managerial behaviour," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 207-225.
    2. Rosanna Spanò & Adele Caldarelli & Luca Ferri & Marco Maffei, 2020. "Context, culture and control: a case study on accounting change in an Italian regional health service," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 229-272, March.
    3. Malmmose, Margit & Kure, Nikolaj, 2021. "Putting the patient first? The story of a decoupled hospital management quality initiative," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. C. Richard Baker, 1999. "L'Influence Des Savants Français Sur La Recherche Comptable Anglo-Saxonne," Post-Print halshs-00587746, HAL.
    5. Bala Balachandran, 2007. "Imperialismo occidental y contabilidad en Oriente: La historia del Instituto de contadores de gestión autorizados de Sri Lanka," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, December.
    6. Luft, Joan & Shields, Michael D., 2003. "Mapping management accounting: graphics and guidelines for theory-consistent empirical research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 169-249.
    7. Napier, Christopher J., 2006. "Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 445-507.
    8. Vaivio, J., 2006. "The accounting of "The Meeting": Examining calculability within a "Fluid" local space," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 735-762, November.
    9. Marc Nikitin & Jean-Baptiste Capgras & Dragos Zelinschi, 2017. "Dynamiques de la gouvernementalité : concurrence et calcul des coûts dans le système de santé français," Post-Print hal-01907396, HAL.
    10. Gebreiter, Florian, 2016. "“Comparing the incomparable”: Hospital costing and the art of medicine in post-war Britain," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 257-268.
    11. Pflueger, Dane, 2016. "Knowing patients: The customer survey and the changing margins of accounting in healthcare," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 17-33.
    12. Samuel, Sajay & Dirsmith, Mark W. & McElroy, Barbara, 2005. "Monetized medicine: from the physical to the fiscal," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 249-278, April.
    13. Walters, Melissa, 2004. "Alternative accounting thought and the prison-house of metaphor," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 157-187, February.
    14. Preston, Alistair M. & Chua, Wai-Fong & Neu, Dean, 1997. "The Diagnosis-Related Group-Prospective Payment System and the problem of the government of rationing health care to the elderly," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 147-164, February.
    15. Marc Bollecker & Pierre Mathieu & Claude Clementz, 2006. "Le Comportement Socialement Responsable Des Entreprises : Une Lecture Des Travaux En Comptabilite Et Contrôle De Gestion Dans Une Perspective Neo-Institutionnaliste," Post-Print halshs-00769052, HAL.
    16. Bigoni, Michele & Funnell, Warwick, 2015. "Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 160-176.
    17. Giovanni Gregorini, 2016. "Accounting, Charities and local government in modern Italy: the case of the Congrega della carit? apostolica in Brescia," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 7-43.
    18. Himick, Darlene, 2016. "Actuarialism as biopolitical and disciplinary technique," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 22-44.
    19. Barrett, Michael & Cooper, David J. & Jamal, Karim, 2005. "Globalization and the coordinating of work in multinational audits," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-24, January.
    20. Thereza RS de Aguiar, 2018. "Turning accounting for emissions rights inside out as well as upside down," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(1), pages 139-159, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:13:y:2003:i:2:p:99-123. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RABF21 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.