Views of doctors and managers on the doctor-manager relationship in the NHS

Abstract

We conducted a postal questionnaire survey in NHS acute trusts across Great Britain during the summer of 2002. The survey included a census of chief executives and medical directors (from 197 trusts), together with a stratified cluster sample of both medical and non-medical managers at directorate level (clinical directors or their equivalent and non-medical directorate managers or their equivalent) randomly selected from 75 trusts. Comparisons between these different role groups form the central part of the analysis; we assessed variations across all four groups using χ² tests.