ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how marketing tools can be used to navigate the healthcare market. A service is defined as an intangible product involving performance that cannot physically be possessed. The key differentiating characteristics of services from products are: intangibility, inseparability of production and consumption, perishability, client-based relationships and customer contact. Changes in government inevitably lead to potentially radical shifts in healthcare policies. The current financially ischaemic status of the National Health Service (NHS) demands substantial increases in clinical productivity and efficiency. The social demographics of the British population are changing, alongside growing expectations of patients, increasing prevalence of long-term conditions, increasing life expectancy of individuals with multiple health problems and widening health inequalities. Social relations are becoming more fluid and less hierarchical with less deference towards authority and a greater drive towards individualism. Electronic Health Records aim to help prevent error and improve service co-ordination.
