Caveat emptor or blissful ignorance? Patients and the consumerist ethos

Deborah Lupton*, Cam Donaldson, Peter Lloyd

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

97 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The notion that consumerist behaviour is, or should be, prevalent amongst individuals seeking health care has underlain recent United States and British governmental policy directives. Consumer groups make similar assumptions when exhorting individuals to treat health care like any other service. This paper enquires to what extent patients conceive of themselves and others as adopting consumerist behaviour when seeking and evaluating primary health care. Three hundred and thirty-three patients attending general practices in Sydney, Australia, were asked in open-ended questions to state why they chose their regular doctor, why they continued to visit that doctor, if they had ever changed their doctor, if they thought most people could tell if a doctor were good or bad, and what qualities they thought constituted a good and bad doctor. It is concluded that the patients surveyed tended not think of themselves as consumers who should be wary of the quality of service offered by doctors. Rather they preferred to trust their doctor, and therefore did not devote effort to actively seeking out information about their doctor or evaluating his or her services.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)559-568
Number of pages10
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume33
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1991
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • consumerism
  • health care
  • Patients

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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