ABSTRACT
Priests provided places of healing in many cultures. In medieval Europe, hospitals were run by monastic orders. Diverse institutions gradually emerged to provide the services that monasteries had previously provided for sick poor and elderly. Significant legislation was passed, the Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601, which conferred a duty of care on parishes to support those sick who 'belonged' to their locality. The forms of administration of these institutions were as diverse as the institutions themselves. Community health service provision followed a similar but even more variable path, although private provision remained dominant. Individual hospitals were frequently administered simply by a hospital secretary matron and medical superintendent. The Community Care: agenda for action, or Griffiths Report, of 1983, concluded that the health service lacked a coherent system of management and processes to evaluate its performance against normal business criteria.
