BMJ  2006;333:147-148 (15 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7559.147-d

Letter

Patient involvement in health care will improve quality

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Coulter suggests that patients should be asked to provide detailed reports of their experiences of clinical care during a particular consultation and that they should be asked about what actually occurred rather than to evaluate what occurred.¹ We agree that it is a generalisation too far by Rao et al to state that patients are unable to assess the quality of care they receive.²

A more useful approach may be building working partnerships for care. Coulter mentions this when she stated that most patents prefer doctors who involve them in treatment decisions and those who respect patients' dignity.³ There is much scope for incorporating into routine health care, patients' views on their health needs and their assessment of progress towards treatment goals, particularly in chronic disease. Encouraging patients to become active participants who take responsibility for working towards their treatment goal—for example, by ensuring that their blood pressure . . . [Full text of this article]

robert.hunter@nhs.net, Research and Development Directorate, Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow G12 0XH

Research and Development Directorate, Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow G12 0XH

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