Professionals in health services are important because without their dedication and enthusiasm patients do not receive the necessary care, especially in times of cutbacks. However, we should not forget that for these professionals to work properly they need their organizations to be well governed and I will exemplify this with two publications, the first of which is the last book of the veteran professor of McGill University Montreal, Henry Mintzberg, and the second is an article on this subject in the New York Times.
One of Professor Mintzberg’s best known lessons has been the conceptualization of the third sector as a balanced element of democratic societies. One sector, he says, called to serve as a counterweight between public and private spheres. Its key differentiator is property that is either collective, such as in cooperatives or is diffuse, such as in foundations or associations, apart of course of their altruistic purposes and their natural space: community services. All this makes the third sector is specially equipped to manage health services in a well weighted basis between the despotic temptations of political power and the interests of private companies.
