Constructing the patient consumer: patient groups and health consumerism, 1960-1991. (360G-Wellcome-081454_Z_06_A)

This project examines the activities of three different types of organisation that claimed to speak and act for the patient consumer from the 1960s until the creation of the Patient's/Citizen's Charter in 1991. The project will consider: the work carried out by dedicated patient groups, the focus here will be on the Patients' Association and the National Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital; the involvement of general consumer groups in health issues, attention here will be directed towards the actions of the Consumers' Association and the National Consumer Council; the efforts of quasi-statutory bodies tasked with representing patients in the form of a selection of the Community Health Councils. In focusing on these examples this project aims not to be a study of separate organisations, but will instead use these to address broader questions about the construction of the patient consumer 1960-1991. The project thus has 4 thematic aims: 1. To unpick the changing meaning of the 'patient consumer' 2. To assess the changing demands of the 'patient consumer' 3. To understand the nature of the relationship between patient groups and health professionals 4. To understand the nature of the relationship between patient groups and the state