BMJ 2002;324:648-651 ( 16 March )

Primary care

    After Bristol: putting patients at the centre
    Commentary: Patient centred care: timely, but is it practical?

After Bristol: putting patients at the centre

Angela Coulter, chief executive. 

Picker Institute Europe, Oxford OX1 1RX

angela.coulter@pickereurope.ac.uk

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

Many of the 198 recommendations made by the Bristol inquiry urged doctors to include patients as active participants in their own care. Angela Coulter discusses how these recommendations can be turned into reality

The public inquiry into failures in the performance of surgeons involved in heart surgery on children at the Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1984 and 1995 made 198 recommendations on how to prevent failures in the future. The pre-eminent recommendations urged doctors to:

• Involve patients (or their parents) in decisions
• Keep patients (or parents) informed
• Improve communication with patients (or parents)
• Provide patients (or parents) with counselling and support
• Gain informed consent for all procedures and processes
• Elicit feedback from patients (or parents) and listen to their views
• Be open and candid when adverse events occur.¹

These recommendations are fine rhetoric, but how can they be turned into reality?

Improving responsiveness to patients has been a goal of health policy in the . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Time gentlemen time

peter r. williams
bmj.com, 19 Mar 2002 [Full text]

Lack of time or of role?

Aureo Muzzi
bmj.com, 22 Mar 2002 [Full text]

"It's attitude, stupid" to paraphrase Bill Clinton

Roger M. Goss
bmj.com, 29 Mar 2002 [Full text]

None so blind

Mitzi MA Blennerhassett
bmj.com, 1 Apr 2002 [Full text]

Patient-centred care: let’s start with those who most need it

Josip Car, et al.
bmj.com, 8 Apr 2002 [Full text]

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