Who Cares about the Carer? New Public Management in Sweden - the case of Health Call Centres

• Monica Andersson Bäck analysed how call centre organisation and technology affect working life and are reflecting the fundamental conflicts of new ways of managing public sector organisations inspired by private business with commercial objectives, also mentionned as New Public Managment (NPM). Like call centres in general, the health call centre is built on the attempt to acheive fundamental as well as contradictory goals simultaneously: a routinisation and standardisation aimed at rationalisation and cost-efficiency, and a more accessible, comprehensive, user-friendly and reliable health care service day and night, all year around. It is worth noticing that the precariousness in the health care service ressembles precariousness in retailing, In both sectors the consumers are privileged. This previlige is based on the consumers being part of an employment system that requires a certain service level in society, a service level that should be offered by someone. This highlights the problems of how precariousness creates different employment systems for different groups of employees. At the same time, the health call centre reflects an opposite picture to the general call centre, requiring flexibility, problem-solving and tailored relations with the care-seeker. Theoretical or a higher-order contextual knowledge, as well as social and analytical skills, are needed in order to identify symptoms, solve problems and give advice. Health call centre means controlled work that is also borderless, requiring the telenurses to set the definitive frontiers of their duty, if possible?

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Keyword

tele-nursing

health call centre

New Public Management

contradictions

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kap (subject category)