ABSTRACT
Co-production has been promoted as a way of organising services and restructuring relationships between service users and professionals in a range of different public services. This chapter discusses the distinctive context of co-production in healthcare and the particular obstacles that this approach creates in the health sector. The issue of motivations for patients to co-produce is particularly relevant in health, where there are incentives but also barriers and challenges that may not exist in other sectors. The challenge for professionals in respecting patients as experts is particularly intense given the opportunities for patients to acquire knowledge which does not conform to evidence thresholds respected within medical science. Attention to the unevidenced nature of some patient choices also highlights the scope for co-productive health initiatives to raise issues of legal liability where citizens make choices that run counter to a traditional evidence base.
