Events, Public Discourses and Responsive Government: Quality Assurance in Health Care in England, Sweden and Japan

One would expect the common agenda of improving the quality of care
in hospital sectors across nations to bring about a convergence of their
quality assurance systems. However, one finds great variations in the
ways in which such schemes are constructed and communicated to the
general public in different countries. This paper examines three universal
health care systems (England, Sweden and Japan) and explores the degree
to which political institutions and public opinions affect the processes of
quality assurance system building within them. It argues that the inputs
from governments in response to public concerns are the key to
understanding the changes in this seemingly profession-dominated policy
domain; therefore policy changes are significantly affected by dynamic
interactions between events, public discourses and governance structures
within these countries. The findings also demonstrate that public access
to information has begun to have a large impact on policy debates in all
three countries.