The development of medical consumerism in South Africa

Private medical practice is increasingly perceived as an entrepreneurial activity by private patients. Accordingly, enlightened and assertive medical consumers can be expected to demand satisfaction in exchange for their health‐care purchases. Vociferous patients, reacting to dissatisfaction and inequities, may launch an association as a countervailing force to the powerful doctors’ associations. Structural imbalances and the sophisticated yet critical nature of medical care have hitherto precluded the existence of medical consumerism. However, in an environment of individual and community sovereignty, such a force is imminent where adversarial doctor‐patient relationships develop, or where patients’ rights are infringed. Once this force has been established, its influence will spread to public health care, especially when patients believe their basic rights are being infringed. This article, therefore, enlightens practitioners and National Health Service providers on the possible areas of conflict.

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Department of Business Economics, University of Durban‐Westville.