ABSTRACT
Parson’s concept (Parsons 1957) of the sick role, espoused half a century ago, has long been dispensed with by health professionals and yet we are far from the ideal of patients as consumers (at least by those who wish to) in our hospitals. One feasible explanation is that the rhetoric of consumerism is clearly undercut by the realities of the practice setting. Further expansion on this is warranted here. The operational definition of consumer, as we know it, embraces the notion of empowerment for the user of a service or the purchaser of a product. In simple terms, if consumers do not like what they have bought, they are entitled to return the product and expect a refund, as per the Fair Trading policy. Similarly, if they are not satisfied with a service such as household goods repair, then they are within their right to withhold payment until the job is done to their satisfaction. However, health care as a product tends to fit outside the consumer model, because consumers of health care, especially in hospitals, do not have the same opportunity to demand a refund if their care is less than satisfactory or if they have not been consulted about their care. One cannot take poor or unsatisfactory health care back for a refund, and besides, patients as consumers are sometimes too sick to complain and often feel that they do not have any power to act.
