Demanding Patients? (State of Health)

The management of demand for healthcare is a central concern to policy makers, commissioners and providers. Only a small proportion of health problems experienced by people living in the community result in contact with healthcare professionals in primary or secondary care. As a consequence small changes in the health actions of the public or in the accessibility of a service are likely to produce large changes in workload and create dilemmas for health policy makers charged with meeting need in a resource constrained healthcare system. This book brings together concepts, policy issues and recent research findings on help-seeking and healthcare utilization. It focuses on lay decision making and examines the influences and factors shaping the relationship between health need and demand for care by examining the connections between people's experience of health problems, their care for themselves and their use of formal health care and community pharmacy.