SPEAKER'S CORNER
Patient centredness
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Peter G Davies
Keighley Road Surgery, Illingworth, Halifax HX2 9LL, UK;npgdavies@blueyonder.co.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Patient centredness is one of the current buzz phrases in the British National Health Service. At its best, the term expresses a great aspiration, a wish for health professionals to engage with patients as equal partners at a deep level that includes understanding both their illness and what it will mean for patients in their life context.1 However, there are difficulties with the concept, both at the level of its definition and in its implementation.2,3
At its worst, it is simply a buzz phrase, which sounds good and allows managers and politicians to seem to be on the patient’s side. In the wider economic sphere, Zuboff and Maxmin4 draw attention to the fact that many organisations that claim to be "customer focused" actually are not. Perhaps patient centredness is the health sector’s equivalent term.
It is not always clear at what level patient centredness should apply. Is it at the
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- In this issue
- Carlos Alvarez-Dardet, John R Ashton
J Epidemiol Community Health 2007 61: 1.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Davies, P. G
(2008). Individual doctors do their best not to. BMJ
336: 736-736
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
