Publisher's Synopsis
The health care professionals are urged to review their goals in management and also their relationships with the patient and society. Are they giving people what they want, or what the professionals think they want? Why do people seek alternative medicine? The present failure of Western governments to fulfil all the public's expectations is seen to be due to the pressing need to limit the escalating costs of present day "high tech" medicine. The drain on health resources becomes even greater as the proportion of aged, cancer-prone people increases in the population. In the face of rising expectations, doctors are seen to be pressured by the state or other employing organizations to examine their management decisions an allocation of time, on a cost-effective basis.;It discusses the spiralling costs of rapidly obsolescent diagnostic and treatment methods which have led to some sort of rationing even among the wealthiest Western nations. But while rationing and queuing are forcing doctors to choose between patients on both medical and social grounds, there are on the other hand pressures in the other direction. Doctors are increasinglu being subjected to malpractice suits from patients if their management is considered inadequate.
