What is unnecessary surgery? Who shall decide? Issues of consumer sovereignty, conflict and self-regulation

Paul J. Schacht and Alec Pemberton

Social Science & Medicine, 1985, vol. 20, issue 3, 199-206

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a study of selected surgical procedures in Queensland, Australia. The data are compared to trends in the U.S.A. and England and Wales. Attention is drawn to the limitations of such epidemiological data as the basis for inferences about the necessity (or otherwise) of particular operations. This leads to a discussion of unnecessary surgery in the light of arguments for and against consumer sovereignty and the self-regulation of the medical profession. Faced with differences of opinion, and the problems of reconciling expert and consumer views about necessity, we argue that claims and counter-claims about unnecessary surgery should be opened to closer scrutiny. A review committee format based on medical and non-medical participation is proposed to achieve this end.

Date: 1985
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(85)90232-1
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:20:y:1985:i:3:p:199-206

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().