Letters
Health services administration
Volume 184 - Issue 12

High-cost users of hospital beds in Western Australia

Author:  Chris Holmwood

Med J Aust 2006; 184 (12): 647. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00432.x
Published online: 19 June 2006
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To the Editor: Now that Calver and colleagues have unequivocally established that “High costs appear to be needs-driven”,1 can we dispense with the Orwellian language used in this article?

“High-cost users” can now become “high-needs patients”.

The language in the article subtly reflects a view that is often adopted by senior non-clinical health service administrators, who are themselves usually in robust good health. This view is that people with high levels of health service need are merely rapacious consumers of rare health dollars, of which the administrators are guardians.

For those of us providing services in primary (mostly ambulatory) care, life is complicated enough choosing between “patient”, “person with”, “client”, “consumer” or “punter”. Can we please avoid adding “user” to the already overcrowded lexicon of nominals used for patients?

I am sure if we changed the terminology then those “high-cost users” would feel a bit more valued when they read this article.

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