Ahmad Risk wrote
>Doctor centred medicine implies that there are other "something else
>centred" medicine. I will probably need enlightment on this.
>
>If, on the other hand, you mean that the patients should have tests
>that *they* want, despite a prfoessional opinion to the effect that
>they do not *need* them or the tests are *inappropriate* or
>*irrelevant* to the management of the condition, then, beggars
>can't be choosey.
Whatever the future may bring (and I am sure a man as wise as
Ahmad Risk knows that it will not be what we expect) our terms
of service relate to the here and now, especially the "all necessary
medical care" bit. Right here and now the way we practice is determined
as much by cultural expectations as medical propriety and the
cultural environment is one increasingly of "I have a right to know".
I think this makes my job much easier as the patient wants to take
some of the responsibility off *me*. This may change what tests are
done or not done because the patient's value of their worth may be
different from mine. This is the sense in which the activity is less
doctor centred. You could call it more patient centred but equally
culture centred. Surely this is more appropriate today (tomorrow is
another day) than the econo-centred (not doctor centred) Risk model.
Doug Jenkinson, Keyworth, Nottingham.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|