Feminist Views Of The Nhs Essay

889 Words4 Pages

The Feminist Views of the NHS in the 1970s and 1980s with a Focus on Abortion Law Reform
Medicalisation of Reproduction and The Shifting Attitudes of the Medical Profession
The Pill and contraceptive methods requiring medical supervision were revolutionary in the sense that they were taken by healthy women of reproductive age over an extended period, challenging the doctor’s role defined to be healing the sick. Abortion was controversial, as therapeutic abortion was widespread in Britain in the early 20th century, but was regarded as an immoral act at best. The medical profession played an important role in shaping the debates surrounding abortion and contraception, while its attitudes were shaped by the appearance of consumerism in healthcare …show more content…

Consumerism in the NHS was not equivalent to applying market principles to health care settings, but it was the continuation of the deal of social citizenship upon which the centralized British health care system was founded. One of the new developments was the conduction of surveys seeking patient opinions on the service which revealed that satisfaction was high among patients and they were more grateful for the care received than critical, but this could be, at least partly, due to the uncritical acceptance of doctors’ opinion – an example of remaining passive as a patient. Patients wanted more of a say in relation to their care from the 1960s, and the number of voluntary organisations, especially around health-related issues shoot up around this time ensuring that patients’ voice could be no longer ignored completely. In turn, the profession slowly realised that patient opinions could be used for improving the service, for example, the recurring problem of patients when it came to communication with medical staff could be resolved by doctors being more approachable. The appearance of the patient-consumer reflected the shifts in the relationships between doctors and patients, and among patients and health care providers and policy