ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how patients have been positioned through the choices available to them in the history of the National Health Service (NHS) through an empirical examination of policy documents. It explores the implications of these findings for our understanding of the history of consumerism in healthcare. By 1997, Labour had been returned to power, and quickly produced a new White Paper presenting their view of health organisation. This was taken further with the suggestion that organisational development techniques and that the National Health Service Executive will work with the health service locally to promote the organisational and personal development that must support clinicians and managers as they put these new arrangements in place and respond to the new challenges. Health services in the UK have always been based on the principle that individuals have the right to choose their own general practitioner (GP), and the right to choose private healthcare.
