Loughlin, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2234-2146 (2014) What person-centred medicine is and isn’t: temptations for the ‘soul’ of PCM. European Journal of Person Centred Healthcare, 2 (1). pp. 16-21. ISSN 2052-5656

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Abstract

These are exciting times for the defenders of Person-Centred Medicine(PCM). A recent editorial of the International Journal of Person-Centred medicine celebrates the new interest policy-makers are taking in PCM, but worries that: ‘the nomenclature of “person-centred medicine” risks the accusation that such a term represents a further rhetorical addition to the already rhetorically overburdened nature of health services.’ The worries are indeed justified. Practitioners struggling to do their jobs in the resource-constrained environments of contemporary health services may well react cynically to the latest linguistic innovation, especially if it seems, like its predecessors, to combine the blindingly obvious with the ‘revolutionary’. With reference to the case studies of ‘quality theory’ in management studies and Evidence-based medicine, the paper argues that initially promising ideas are compromised when required to meet the agendas of policy-makers looking for a quick fix to what are in fact deep, structural problems in the delivery of health services. We must resist such moves if we are to preserve the intellectual and moral integrity of PCM as a critical perspective on medical practice, and to develop ideas that are actually helpful to practitioners and the users of health services.

Item Type:	Article
Identifier:	10.5750/ejpch.v2i1.689
Subjects:	Medicine and health Philosophy
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Michael Loughlin
Date Deposited:	01 Jul 2018 19:10
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2024 12:01
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/5233

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