Patient and Staff Voices in Primary Care

Book excerpt: This unique work represents the recording and analysis of oral history interviews conducted by the pioneering general practitioner Dr Hetty Ockrim with over seventy patients, as well as office staff and members of the nursing team, between 1989 and 1992 in her former practice in the Ibrox/Govan areas of Glasgow, places of significant socio-economic deprivation. Her focus in undertaking this study was on personal and social, rather than just clinical, issues. The interviews are accompanied by background and commentary for the study, reflecting the full breadth of general practice. Many of the interviewees had memories stretching back before the NHS, providing a unique historical perspective of service development, as well as invaluable directions for improving current and future general practice. Key Features Provides a historical context for the developments in health over several decades prior to the study Shows how oral history methods have increasingly been used in medical history research and explores the benefits of this approach Covers many of the themes of the oral history which enabled and encouraged patients to comment on what was important to them in their encounters with health care Follows the increasing acceptance of women in medicine, demonstrating how women doctors were viewed by patients within the practice compared to changes in wider society Presents a ‘history from below’, using voices that are not normally heard in the medical discourse, illustrating the importance of the doctor–patient interface Supporting a wider understanding of what patient narratives can tell us about the delivery of health care from the perspective of the patients, the front-line users of health services, the book show how oral history can provide an understanding of health care more broadly, key at a time when social inequality is once again widening in many regions.