Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Risk and the responsible health consumer: The problematics of entitlement among callers to NHS Direct

Goode, Jackie, Greatbatch, David, O'Cathain, Alicia, Luff, Donna, Hanlon, Gerard, Strangleman, Tim (2004) Risk and the responsible health consumer: The problematics of entitlement among callers to NHS Direct. Critical Social Policy, 24 (2). pp. 210-232. ISSN 0261-0183. E-ISSN 1461-703X. (doi:10.1177/0261018304041951) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:38234)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018304041951

Abstract

NHS Direct, the 24-hour telephone helpline, uses modern communications technology to offer easier and faster access to advice about health, illness and the NHS so that people are better able to care for themselves and their families. In-depth interviews with callers to the service show that they bring with them discourses of the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' familiar in the provision of other welfare services. The figure of the 'time-waster' is the NHS equivalent of the welfare 'scrounger', acting as a mechanism to problematize entitlement. NHS Direct dispels such fears and legitimizes demand. At the same time, ever-rising levels of service use constitute a threat to what callers value most about it.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0261018304041951
Uncontrolled keywords: Health care, Patient empowerment, Rationing, Technology
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Mita Mondal
Date Deposited: 12 Feb 2014 10:30 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:14 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/38234 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.