Changing Relationships

This publication looks at how policy has shifted in response to wider cultural changes and high-profile investigations such as the Bristol inquiry, which found doctors at the Bristol Royal Infirmary guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Drawing on the results of interviews with a wide range of clinicians and stakeholders, Changing Relationships reveals widespread disparities in understandings of patient-centred care and how to achieve it. The paper also highlights a tendency to redefine existing activities to fit the concept of patient-centred care.

The paper suggests that patients, users and carers must play a key role in determining what patient-centred care means, and should be given more power and control, if clinical encounters are to become truly patient-centred.