Evaluating the Concept of Choice in Healthcare

Choice is what we all want, as most would say. There is a growing cognisance that patients can and should play an important role in deciding their own care, in defining optimal care, and in improving healthcare delivery. Popular concepts such as patient-centred care, patient empowerment, and patients as partners, shared decision making, and informed choice illustrate the emancipation of patient. The paper describes that choice is not necessarily a good thing in health care; however, that does not rebut the significance of choice. In order to support the overall argument, the paper focuses on why patient choice is important, and in each discussion, this is disputed with counter-arguments to demonstrate that in fact, to an extent, choice is not necessarily a good thing in healthcare.