Transcultural communication and ethnic comparisons in the experience of services

[摘要] The General Medical Council (GMC) emphasises putting patients at the centre of practice and good communication skills are essential for clinical practice to be patient-centred.1 Reflecting this, three out of the GMC's 15 ‘duties of a doctor’ specifically relate to communication: namely to listen to patients and respect their views; give patients information in a way they can understand and respect the rights of patients to be fully involved in decisions about their care.2 There has been a concurrent increased interest in patient evaluations of both practitioners and services. Patient evaluations of GPs form one component of mandatory ‘GP appraisal’. Surveys asking patients about their experience and satisfaction are increasingly used to evaluate services. A number of different measures of patient satisfaction and service experience have been developed.3,4 These cover factors seem to be core features of quality of primary care, such as access, technical skills, communication, interpersonal care, patient-centredness, continuity and trust. While overall levels of satisfaction are high, a number of studies have reported less positive experiences and lower satisfaction with primary care services among those from ethnic minorities.3,5

[学科分类] 卫生学