The Reform of Public Administration Applied to the Health Sector: The Portuguese Experience

Abstract

The profound changes in the state's role over the last decades have led to structural modifications within the operation and behaviour of public administration. The New Public Management (NPM), in a perspective of adapting to these changes and provide the State with greater performance, brought to the public sector methods of private management. This created a new organizational structure, the corporatization of public services, which meant to increase efficiency. For such purpose, a concern with cost control manifested itself by keeping the standard levels of quality and enhancing performance in production. The health sector was not forgotten by this reform. The transformation of hospitals in the Administrative Public Sector Corporations wholly publicly owned (SA) and later in the state Public Enterprises (EPE) are explicit examples of the influence of this model in the health sector.