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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Withering the citizen, managing the consumer : complaints in healthcare settings
— [Choice or voice? The impact of consumerism on public services] | | Author(s) | Judith Allsop, Kathryn Jones |
| Journal title | Social Policy & Society, vol 7, pt 2, April 2008 |
| Pages | pp 233-244 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/sps |
| Keywords | National Health Service ; Complaints [services] ; Consumer ; Citizenship. |
| Annotation | This paper considers concepts of citizenship and consumerism in light of complaints about healthcare, which have risen since the early 1990s, due to a greater willingness by the healthcare user to complain, and also the reforms in complaint systems. The narrow legal model for dealing with complaints has been replaced by a managerial model based on corporate sector practice that views complaint handling as a way of retaining customers and organisational learning. The managerial model has proved difficult to embed into the English NHS and has been superposed with a centralised regulatory system that aims to manage performance while also being responsible for reviewing, complaints and being responsive to complainants. It is argued that this may have positive consequences in terms of improving healthcare quality but more negatively, the promotion of consumerism within complaints processes has led to a loss of the right to due process and public accountability. This article is one of six in a themed section, 'Choice or voice? The impact of consumerism on public services' in this issue of Social Policy & Society. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-080819224 A |
| Classmark | L4: QLV: WY: IKC |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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