Victor Pestoff: Co-production and Japanese Healthcare: Work Environment, Governance, Service Quality and Social Values

A growing interest in healthcare, and particularly in the management of social and healthcare services, is currently emerging in both academic and applied fields. More in general, the societal and economical changes of the last decades are increasingly questioning the available models applied in the structuring and administering of public services as well as their effectiveness and efficiency in addressing the needs of the populations. Great importance has been given to new paradigms such as New Public Governance (NPG), collaborative governance and co-production, but there is still a need to clarify the definition and description of the application of these models and to study their outputs and outcomes. This is a book review of the volume entitled Co-production and Japanese Healthcare, by Victor Pestoff, which contains several theoretical and empirical inputs that can foster research and awareness on the evolution of public services and on new governance opportunities, with particular attention to the different actors involved and their potential roles in building innovative responses to the emerging social and health needs of populations around the world. Healthcare systems should not only achieve efficiency and effectiveness. The proposal here is to shift the focus towards more socially oriented approaches that allow to mobilize resources from individuals and communities.