DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS IN THE PRIVATE-SECTOR - PATIENTS PERCEPTIONS

Recent challenges to medical authority have been viewed as having an i mpact on relationships between doctors and patients. It is argued that these challenges have resulted in moves away from traditional paterna listic relationships. As a result of their market position, private pa tients as a group might be expected to be most advanced in bringing ab out change in the doctor-patient relationship. Using data collected fr om a study of private patients, an analysis of patients' interpretatio ns of their relationships with their doctors was undertaken. The patie nts' accounts indicated that relationships contained elements of both mutuality and consumerism. The features of the interaction, the organi sation of health care in the private sector and the power of the medic al profession are used to explain how these relationships develop. It is argued that there are tensions that exist in reality between the pr inciples underlying each model which constrain relationships between d octors and patients moving too far in the direction of either consumer ism or mutuality.