Making the patient-consumer: Patient organisations and health consumerism in Britain
Alex Mold
Abstract
Over the last fifty years, British patients have been made into consumers. This book considers how and why the figure of the patient-consumer was brought into being, paying particular attention to the role played by patient organisations. Making the Patient-Consumer explores the development of patient-consumerism from the 1960s to 2010 in relation to seven key areas. Patient autonomy, representation, complaint, rights, information, voice and choice were all central to the making of the patient-consumer. These concepts were used initially by patient organisations to construct the figure of the ... More
Over the last fifty years, British patients have been made into consumers. This book considers how and why the figure of the patient-consumer was brought into being, paying particular attention to the role played by patient organisations. Making the Patient-Consumer explores the development of patient-consumerism from the 1960s to 2010 in relation to seven key areas. Patient autonomy, representation, complaint, rights, information, voice and choice were all central to the making of the patient-consumer. These concepts were used initially by patient organisations to construct the figure of the patient-consumer, but by the 1990s the government had taken over as the main actor shaping ideas about patient consumerism. Making the Patient-Consumer is the first empirical, historical account of a fundamental shift in modern British health policy and practice. The book will be of use to historians, public policy analysts and all those attempting to better understand the nature of contemporary healthcare.
Keywords:
History of medicine,
Patient consumerism,
Consumerism,
Health consumerism
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780719095313 |
| Published to Manchester Scholarship Online: January 2016 |
DOI:10.7228/manchester/9780719095313.001.0001 |
